Traveler sues government agencies over federal transportation mask mandate
2021 COVIDBRF 0035
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By Rae Theodore
WESTLAW TODAY Covid-19 Briefing
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June 14, 2021
(June 14, 2021) - A Washington, D.C., man has asked a Florida federal court to bar the Transportation Security Administration and other government agencies from enforcing a federal mask mandate after he was turned away from a flight for refusing to wear a mask.
In an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order filed June 10 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Lucas Wall says he will be traveling in six days and will be "imminently harmed" if the mask requirement is not revoked.
Wall was unable to proceed through a TSA checkpoint and onto a June 2 Southwest Airlines Co. flight from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, because TSA and Southwest agents refused to honor the medical exemption request he had submitted to accommodate his anxiety disorder, according to the more than 200-page complaint.
He says he has tried wearing masks but claims they "instigate a feeling of a panic attack, including hyperventilating and other breathing trouble."
Wall, who is representing himself, says his lawsuit is the first to challenge the federal mask mandate as a whole, as well as the first seeking to invalidate another mandate requiring travelers to obtain a COVID-19 test within three days of departing a foreign country for the United States.
'Masks are totally ineffective,' suit says
Wall sued TSA, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Transportation and President Joe Biden on June 7, alleging that the federal transportation mask mandate is unconstitutional and violates a Florida executive order prohibiting state subdivisions from requiring face coverings.
The mandate, which went into effect Feb. 1, requires that everyone wear masks on commercial flights, trains, buses, boats and on terminals.
Wall alleges that both the mask and testing mandates are procedurally flawed because the government agencies failed to follow the notice and comment requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C.A. § 706.
The defendants disregarded "countless scientific and medical data showing that face masks are totally ineffective in reducing coronavirus spread (and are actually harmful in many circumstances)," the suit says.
Suit: Medical exemption not honored
Wall says he purchased tickets May 31 for the June 2 Southwest flight and seven other flights on various airlines for himself and his mother. They both had been fully vaccinated and completed Southwest's application for a medical exemption from the mask mandate, according to the complaint.
On the day of the flight, Orlando Airport's TSA agents in conjunction with Southwest's agents refused to let Wall board his flight without a mask, even though he presented his vaccination card and explained that he suffers from anxiety, the suit says.
Wall, who booked his flight 48 hours in advance, says a Southwest agent told him that passengers must submit medical exemption requests 72 hours before a flight.
The suit asserts numerous claims, including violation of the APA, the Air Carrier Access Act, 49 U.S.C.A. § 41705, and a Florida executive order barring mandatory mask policies.
The ACCA bars airlines from forcing passengers to wear face coverings unless they have a communicable disease and are a "direct threat" to other passengers and flight crew members, the complaint says.
The lawsuit seeks injunctive relief declaring the mandates unconstitutional and permanently enjoining their enforcement.