Speaking to reporters in Tallahassee Tuesday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced his state is suing the Biden administration over President Joe Biden's mask mandate for air travel. The mandate was recently extended until April 18 after it was scheduled to expire on March 18.
"We don't believe in COVID theater and you do see lingering elements of that although even some of the most restrictive states are starting to repeal vaccine passports and some of these mandates. You still have this federal rule that was just extended forcing people to wear masks on airplanes and it's not something that is grounded in any science," DeSantis said. "It's turned the airlines into having to police this. It's created a lot of unruly passenger situations because it's so frustrating for people and so this is something I've been opposed to for a long time."
"Unfortunately there has not really been successful legal challenges to this and I think most people thought this would go the way of the buffalo, but you have an extension and then you have Fauci coming out saying they may need to impose additional restrictions in the future and we need to let people live their life," he continued. "Obviously in Florida what we have control over we do that but in this federal mandate for air travel, I think for as good as we've done on domestic tourism and we're the number one state people seem to want to come to, I think more people would want to fly if they didn't have to have that."
Gov. DeSantis announces a lawsuit against the Biden Administration’s continuation of the transportation mask mandate. https://t.co/tiu5F1NaGA
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) March 29, 2022
DeSantis' announcement comes just days after a number of airline pilots also issued their own lawsuit opposing the mask mandates.