The justices in the highest court in the land denied an application to block the mask requirement.
L ess than a week after blocking President Joe Biden’s plan for employer vaccine mandates, the U.S. Supreme Court has decided to leave the federal mask mandate for air travel in place. The court refused to hear an emergency application filed by a father claiming that he and his 4-year-old autistic son are both medically incapable of wearing masks for extended periods. The application for stay landed at the feet of Justice Neil Gorsuch, the lone justice who has refused to wear a mask on the bench despite a request from Chief Justice John Roberts. Gorsuch referred the matter to the full court, where the justices denied the request without comment. The federal mask mandate for public transportation was put in place by President Joe Biden via executive order when he took office in January 2021. The mandate requires air travelers to wear masks inside airports and on airplanes to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, which has to date caused more than 854,000 deaths in the U.S. Last August, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) extended the face mask requirement through March 18, 2022. Since the pandemic began, the federal mask mandate has been polarizing, with thousands of incidents of passengers refusing to wear masks, sometimes leading to disruptive or violent behavior.
