Closing summary
We’re closing the US politics blog for today, thanks for joining us. We’ll update my colleague Jessica Glenza’s story here on the striking down of the federal mask mandate with comments from White House press secretary Jen Psaki following her upcoming afternoon briefing.
The ruling by a district court judge in Florida, a Donald Trump appointee, to overturn the mandate was the day’s main development, but there was plenty else going on to look at:
- The Pentagon says Ukraine fighters will be trained on heavy howitzer artillery cannons to defend the country against Russia’s invasion. Follow developments in the conflict on our live blog here.
- Democratic congressman Jamie Raskin, speaking about the climate crisis, says “We’ve got to save democracy in order to save our species.”
- Joe and Jill Biden hosted the first White House Easter Egg roll in two years, welcoming thousands of families to the south lawn after a two-year Covid absence.
- The White House announced that a second global Covid-19 summit would take place virtually on 12 May, as concern rises about a new surge of infections and low vaccination rates internationally.
CNN has an interesting look at this afternoon’s federal court ruling in Florida striking down the Biden administration’s mask mandate.
As of mid-afternoon, none of the White House, centers for disease control and prevention (CDC), food and drug administration (FDA), or transportation security administration (TSA) that enforces the mandate have commented on the ruling by Florida district court judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle voiding the mandate, which was last week extended to 3 May.
But CNN notes that every prior attempt to reverse the law in a courtroom has failed, including at the US supreme court, raising questions if Judge Mizelle’s ruling would stand if the administration or agencies were to appeal.
The network cites a justice department court filing from a case in Texas last week, in which efforts to secure a restraining order against the mandate were unsuccessful:
Many other individuals have sought time-sensitive injunctive relief from the CDC or TSA orders that require masks during commercial air travel. The Supreme Court has thrice rejected that relief, and so has every Court of Appeals to consider the issue, the Fourth, Eighth, Eleventh, and DC Circuits, as well as the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
No court has granted such relief, and not a single Judge or Justice has noted their dissent from any of these orders.
