Alaska Airlines bans Sen Lora Reinbold, asks to be excused from floor sessions

A Grand Old Party (GOP) Alaskan lawmaker said her ban from an airline for refusing to wear a mask has stopped her from conducting her political duties. She has also asked to be excused from attending Senate floor sessions.

According to reports, state senator Lora Reinbold said that her ban from Alaska Airlines made it impossible for her to fly into the state capital Juneau to carry out her legislative duties.

Recently, the airline banned Reinbold as she refused to follow the standard COVID-19 rules on wearing a mask which cited federal law requiring all passengers “to wear a mask over their nose and mouth at all times during travel.”

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On Thursday, she asked to be excused from votes in the Capitol from Saturday.

“There’s no airline that flies into Juneau other than Alaska Airlines that I’m aware of,” the Anchorage Daily News reported Reinbold as saying.

“I believe what Alaska Airlines has done by my political ban, restricting my movement from the state capital as a senator, is unconstitutional,” she said, according to the publication.

The outlet also reported that Delta Airlines is the only other large carrier that flies into Juneau but it is seasonal and ends in September.

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Currently in the capital after flying from Anchorage via Seattle, she said, the political ban is still in place as long “as Biden’s illegitimate mask mandate is in place.”

Usually, the lawmakers are only asked to be excused from floor sessions if they have another commitment that stops them from attending.

Meanwhile, reports stated that Reinbold had previously detailed epic journeys to get to Juneau for votes, including when she drove through Canada and took an Alaska Marine Highway System ferry to Juneau in time to vote against a key bill extending pandemic state of emergency.

Presently, Alaska is experiencing a spike in COVID-19 cases. It is also among the top five states in the country for the rate of positive cases per 100,000 people.