NEW YORK — New York officials are taking matters into their own hands to keep masks mandated on public transit in the city after a Florida judge struck down a federal face-covering requirement as unconstitutional this week.
The Monday ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle lifted the Biden administration’s national transit mandate, which has been cited by Gov. Hochul and other local leaders as justification for requiring masks on trains, buses and other modes of public transportation in New York.
Still, Mizelle’s decision had little — if any — impact in the Big Apple as state and city officials pivoted to citing new authorities for keeping faces covered on transit.
The state-controlled Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the city’s subway and buses, the Staten Island Railway, the Long Island Railroad and the Metro-North Railroad, said it will continue to require all its customers to wear masks, citing powers bestowed to it by a March 2 Department of Health directive.
The Taxi and Limousine Commission followed suit and affirmed it will also continue to mandate masks for city riders and drivers of yellow cabs and for-hire vehicles operated by apps like Uber and Lyft.
The Department of Transportation scrambled to alert its Staten Island Ferry riders that they are still required to wear masks as well, putting up new signs at the South Ferry and St. George terminals on Tuesday citing the Department of Health order.
Mayor Adams said at an unrelated press conference Tuesday he and Hochul spoke after Mizelle’s ruling about the importance of using their respective authorities to maintain transit mask mandates as COVID-19 cases continue to spike in New York due to the new BA.2 omicron sub-variant.
“We are densely populated. We see the slight spikes,” Adam said. “I think New Yorkers did the right thing about wearing a mask and we continue to encourage New Yorkers to wear masks if they’re in an environment with an unknown status of the person or individuals they are around, and we need to continue to do that.”
Masking will also remain required at New York’s major airports and transportation hubs, including JFK, LaGuardia, the Port Authority Bus Terminal, the George Washington Bridge Bus Station, the World Trade Center Oculus Transportation Hub and the New York Stewart International Airport, the Port Authority confirmed.
Masks will, however, not remain mandatory at Newark and Teterboro Airports, since New Jersey lifted its state mask requirement following Mizelle’s order, the Port Authority said.
While face coverings are still required in transit settings within the state’s borders, New York-based airline JetBlue said Tuesday it will no longer require its travelers to stay masked while airborne.
In contrast to New York, transportation agencies in other major cities began peeling back their mask rules Tuesday, including in Houston, where officials scrapped face-covering requirements for buses and trains.
President Joe Biden’s administration could appeal Mizelle’s order in hope of keeping the federal mandate alive.
On Tuesday, Justice Department spokesman Anthony Coley said officials believe the federal mask order was “a valid exercise of the authority Congress has given (the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) to protect the public health” — though he said the department would only appeal Mizelle’s ruling if the CDC determined the mask mandate was still necessary for public health.
As of Tuesday night, that decision hadn’t been made.
Earlier Tuesday, Biden implored Americans to decide for themselves whether to stay masked on transit.
“That’s up to them,” Biden said.
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