The Trump judge’s opinion striking down the airplane mask mandate is a legal disaster

So, you’ve probably heard by now that Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, a Trump-appointed judge in Florida, issued a sweeping opinion striking down the Biden administration’s requirement that passengers wear masks on airplanes, trains, and similar methods of transportation.

This requirement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provided that “a person must wear a mask while boarding, disembarking, and traveling on any conveyance into or within the United States,” although it contained a few exceptions. For the moment, it is not in effect, as the Biden administration weighs whether to appeal the judge’s order. Hours after the decision, the country’s four largest airlines dropped their mask requirements — prompting confusion, sometimes mid-flight.

Mizelle is the apotheosis of former President Donald Trump’s approach to selecting federal judges. Appointed to the bench at age 33, Mizelle was fresh off a clerkship for Justice Clarence Thomas and working as an associate at Jones Day, a large law firm closely associated with Trump, when she received her lifetime appointment to the federal bench. At the time, Mizelle had just eight years of experience practicing law — meaning that she had not even yet completed the nine-and-a-half years of practice that Jones Day typically requires for its lawyers to become partners of the firm.