Commentary
How exhilarating it feels to be unmasked as I walk through the airport, and even more so as I recline in my seat on the plane. After two full years, I feel like I’ve gotten my face back. Obviously, this is nothing more than a return to normalcy, but when has normalcy felt so good? Masks are a gross infringement on freedom—the basic freedom to breathe without impediment, and to show one’s face. In previous times, only actors and people who sought to hide their faces wore masks.
So you can imagine my gratitude for the Trump-appointed judge, Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, who struck down the federal mask mandate for travel on planes, trains, and buses. The judge’s decision was a masterpiece of basic logic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) claimed to derive its authority for the mask mandate from a 1944 federal law known as the Public Health Services Act.
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