WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) head Dr. Anthony Fauci has criticized a federal judge’s recent striking down of the air travel and public transportation mask mandate, calling it “a CDC issue” and suggesting masking orders ought to be up to unelected health bureaucrats.
“We are concerned about…courts getting involved in things that are unequivocally a public health decision. This is a CDC issue,” Fauci claimed, saying he was “both surprised and disappointed” at the judge’s ruling.
“Those types of things really are the purview of the CDC. This is a public health issue,” insisted Fauci, who is the highest paid employee in the U.S. federal government.
NEW – Fauci: “We are concerned about courts getting involved in things that are unequivocally a public health decision. This is a CDC issue.”pic.twitter.com/7cjvj2ardk
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) April 21, 2022
On Monday, Florida-based federal Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, a Trump appointee who previously clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas, declared the federal mask mandate on planes and public transportation to be unlawful. In her 59-page ruling, Mizelle argued that the CDC lacked the authority to impose its sweeping mandate.
“Because ‘our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully even in the pursuit of desirable ends,’” Mizelle ruled, “the court declares unlawful and vacates the mask mandate.”
The Biden administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) was quick to appeal the judgment, even though within hours of the ruling several airlines had already scrapped their mask mandates.
On Twitter, civil liberties attorney Jenin Younes responded to Fauci’s comments by remarking that he has “no humility, no respect for or understanding of separation of powers or constitutional democracy”:
No humility, no respect for or understanding of separation of powers or constitutional democracy. Anthony Fauci and his ilk pose a grave threat to the most important principles upon which our country was founded. https://t.co/5AfM4KNRqn
— Jenin Younes (@Leftylockdowns1) April 22, 2022