Indignity Vol. 2, No. 32: Ordinary meaninglessness.

PUBLIC HEALTH DEP'T.

Airline passengers, some not wearing face masks following the end of Covid-19 public transportation rules, sit during a American Airlines flight operated by SkyWest Airlines from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in California to Denver, Colorado on April 19, 2022. (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

A Trump Judge Defines ‘Sanitation,’ the Biden Administration Defines ‘Disappointment’

THE WORD “SANITATION,” federal judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle wrote on Monday, "could be defined as maintaining something in a state of good hygiene and preventing disease." However, the judge continued, in the context of the law authorizing the Centers for Disease Control to impose and enforce public health measures, "sanitation" could only be read to refer to "acts that remove refuse or debris from an area or object." 

Therefore, she concluded, the federal government had no authority to require passengers on public transportation to wear masks to prevent the spread of Covid. With that, Mizelle—a 35-year-old who was rated "not qualified" by the American Bar Association in 2020, when she was on her way to being appointed by Donald Trump after he'd already lost the election, and confirmed by Mitch McConnell's Senate majority before it slipped away—singlehandedly issued a nationwide injunction ending the mask mandate for travelers.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters—when the reporters asked about it—that it was "obviously a disappointing decision." Here was an epitaph for the Biden administration, and for some unknown number of Americans who will keep dying under it: disappointing.