Supreme Court Allows TSA To Issue Mask Mandates

On Monday the Supreme Court left in place a ruling that allows the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to issue mask mandates on planes, trains and other forms of transport, as it had for more than a year during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Supreme Court denied a California attorney’s request to overturn a U.S. Court of Appeals ruling in the D.C. Circuit from December, which found no merit in his claim and affirmed that the TSA does have the authority to maintain security and safety within the transportation system, including imposing the masking requirement.

California attorney Jonathan Corbett had claimed that the TSA did not have the authority to mandate masks on airlines and other types of transportation during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Court of Appeals had disagreed, ruling that the agency “plainly has the authority” to address transportation safety and security.

“Because we find no merit in Corbett’s claim, we deny the petition for review,” the Court wrote. “The Covid-19 global pandemic poses one of the greatest threats to the operational viability of the transportation system and the lives of those on it seen in decades.”

The TSA stopped enforcing the mask mandate in April, hours after a federal judge struck down the federal mask mandate for public transportation, which had been due to expire weeks later.

The mask mandate had been a bone of contention between the government and airlines. In March of this year, the chief executives of the seven U.S. airlines — Alaska, American, Delta, Hawaiian, JetBlue, United and Southwest — asked President Biden to end the mask mandate and drop the pre-departure testing requirement for international travelers coming to the U.S.

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The U.S. tourism industry had long claimed that frictions like mask mandates and testing were bad for their business. “The current decision to halt enforcement of the federal mask mandate effectively returns the choice of mask usage on planes and other forms of public transportation to travelers and travel industry workers, a further step toward endemic management of Covid,” said Tori Emerson Barnes, executive vice president of public affairs and policy at the U.S. Travel Association, when the mandate was scrapped. “We also continue to urge the administration to immediately end pre-departure testing for vaccinated inbound international passengers, which discourages travel and provides limited public health benefits.”

Since the mandate was dropped, some travelers have chosen to keep their masks on. In April, when the mandate was dropped, six out of 10 Americans (60%) supported extending the mask mandate, according to The Harris Poll Covid-19 tracking survey. The next month, a survey by the Pew Research Center found a similar pre-mask majority.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to recommend that people wear masks in indoor public transportation settings such as airports.