Show-Me State Times

Transportation and Security Administration officers stationed in Terminal 1 at Lambert International Airport in St. Louis refused to implement Judge Kathryn Kimbell Mizelle’s order in the hours after the court vacated the federal mask mandate for travelers.

“Until they tell me I cannot let you in, okay!?” a TSA agent manning the checkpoint booth yelled at a Show Me State Times reporter before calling in back up.

As of 3 p.m. Central Daylight Time on Monday, April 18 none of the TSA officers manning the security checkpoint into the A gates at Lambert International Airport had been briefed on the mask mandate being overturned.

This led to tension between the blue-suited TSA agents – most with faces adorned by flimsy medical grade masks – and maskless passengers who were briefed on their rights prior to travel.

“In this airport you have to have one,” an officer providing back-up told the Show Me State Times.

The TSA dismissed a news article from Forbes noting the court overturning the federal mask mandate earlier in the day.

“Alright we don’t go by Forbes, the police enforce us here. So do you want to talk to police or…?” TSA supervisor Derrick Jamison told the Show Me State Times.

It is unclear why Jamison abdicated authority on the matter to St. Louis Police.

“Talk to the police if you don’t want to wear a mask,” Jamison said.

Jamison noted the TSA in St. Louis had not been given an order to stop enforcing the mask mandate.

“So as soon as it comes out we have to get an update on the TSA,” Jamison said.

Jamison again threatened to call police rather than follow the judge’s order.

“Do you want to talk to the police?” Jamison said.

Jamison ended the conversation by saying a mask was required to traverse the security checkpoint and board the flight.

“You have to wear mask,” Jamison told the Show Me State Times around 3 p.m. Central Daylight Time.

Mizelle ordered the federal mask mandate be declared unconstitutional in the United State District Court in the Middle District of Florida Tampa Division.

The judge was unequivocal in vacating the federal mask mandate recently extended by President Joe Biden to May 3 after it was initially set to sunset on April 18.

Any extension is effectively meaningless in the wake of Mizelle’s order overturning the mandate on constitutional grounds

“Because it exceeded the authority granted in & 264(a), the Court must ‘hold unlawful and set aside’ the Mask Mandate as an agency action that is ‘not in accordance with the law’ IS ‘in excess of statutory jurisdiction,’ and ‘short of of statutory right.’ 5 U.S.C.,” Mizelle said in the April 18 order.

Later in the evening TSA agents reportedly stopped enforcing the ban.

A group of pilots also challenged the mandate in late March.

In a lawsuit, 10 pilots challenged the effectiveness of masking, noting the practice did more harm than good.

“The mask mandate is procedurally defective because the defendants adopted it without following the APA’s notice-and-comment requirements or considering the impact on tens of millions of travelers and transportation workers every single day. They also ignored countless scientific and medical studies and articles showing that face masks are totally ineffective in reducing coronavirus spread but are harmful to human health in at least 68 ways. Congress never intended for the Executive Branch to have the authority to promulgate this policy – and even if it did, it’s unconstitutional. CDC and HHS may not exercise their authority in a manner that is inconsistent with the administrative structure that Congress enacted,” the class of pilots said in its lawsuit.