FORT WORTH, Texas (LifeSiteNews) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday against the Biden administration to stop the mask mandate in airports, airplanes, trains, and other “transportation hubs.” Paxton referred to the mandate as “silly” and “illegal” in a tweet on Wednesday.
The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court in Fort Worth, asks the judge to strike down the mask requirement that went into effect February 1, 2021, and was published officially in the Federal Register on February 3, 2021.
Defendants include Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.
Paxton argues the CDC overstepped its regulatory authority when it issued the requirement. The Biden administration also ignored the requirement that the mandate be subject to a “notice and comment” period allowing people to submit feedback. Most regulations must go through a comment period, though the Biden administration has sometimes ignored this requirement.
The statutes cited by the CDC do not give it the power it claims, according to the federal complaint. “None of these statutes or regulations 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,” the lawsuit states.
The statute does not give the CDC broad power to force masks on all individuals, the lawsuit argues. The section of the U.S. Code from which the mandate takes its authority is specifically about the CDC preventing persons with a disease from traveling between states or entering from a foreign country.
The mask mandate “provides no findings that show masks have limited the interstate spread of COVID-19 through conveyances and transportation hubs” and “is not limited to individuals who have been infected or exposed to COVID-19,” the lawsuit states.
AG Paxton also referred to masks as “anti-science” and “virtue-signaling.”
LifeSiteNews has identified 47 studies that reported masks are ineffective and another 32 that concluded they can cause negative health effects.