Texas Rep. Beth Van Duyne, TPPF Launch Lawsuit Against CDC Mask Mandate

The Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), alongside Texas Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX), announced a lawsuit Wednesday against the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), demanding and end of the federal mask mandate on planes and public transportation hubs, contending the federal agency’s mandate constitutes an abuse of power.

The complaint, launched by the TPPF Legal Counsel, TPPF’s executive director Rob Henneke, and Rep. Beth Van Duyne, details the history of the year-long mandate, which CDC chief of staff Sherri Berger, who is listed as a defendant in the complaint, issued January 29, 2021.

It went into effect February 2, 2021, and remains “‘unless modified or rescinded’ or ‘until the Secretary of Health and Human Services rescinds the determination under section 319 of the Public Health Act (42 U.S.C. 247d) that a public health emergency exists,’” as detailed by the complaint. Because of the, for over the past year, Americans have been forced to wear masks at transportation hubs and while on modes of public transportation, including aircrafts, trains, and buses with virtually no end in sight, as President Biden continues to extend the rules despite originally pitching “just” 100 days of masking.

The CDC’s order itself, the plaintiffs argue, states that “‘[m]asks help prevent people who have COVID-19, including those who are pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic, from spreading the virus to others.’” Yet, the order itself “provides no findings that show masks have limited the interstate spread of COVID-19 through conveyances and transportation hubs.”

What is more, the plaintiffs continue, the mask mandate carries criminal penalties, as the CDC reserves the right to do so. 

Ultimately, the complaint states that the CDC’s mask mandate is “in excess” of its purported statutory and regulatory authority “in several ways,” as nome of the statutes it claims to derive authority from “authorize the CDC to make or enforce regulations that amount to a blanket preventative measure against people that may or may not carry infectious disease.”

“Such a broad reading of the statute would be ‘tantamount to creating a general federal police power,’” the complaint reads, adding that the mask mandate “also constitutes an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power to the CDC.”

Plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the mask mandate beyond the CDC’s statutory authority, invalid under the Administrative Procedure Act, a violation of the separation of powers, and unlawful and are seeking an immediate injunction:

The case is Duyne v. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, No. 4:22-cv-00122-O in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas Fort Worth Division.