United States’ federal mask mandate for public transportation, including commercial flights, was voided by a federal judge in Florida on Monday. The mandate was extended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this month.

Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, a US district judge appointed by former President Donald Trump, said that national health regulators failed to follow proper rule-making and also could not justify the action.

The decision was praised by Flordia Governor Ron DeSantis, even though he was not directly involved in the court proceeding. In a social media post on Monday, he wrote, “Great to see a federal judge in Florida follow the law and reject the Biden transportation mask mandate. Both airline employees and passengers deserve to have this misery end.”

“Because our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully even in pursuit of desirable ends, the court declares unlawful and vacates the mask mandate,” district judge Mizelle said in the 59-page ruling released on Monday.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention recently extended the mask mandate, which was set to expire Monday, until May 3 to allow more time to study the BA.2 omicron subvariant of the coronavirus that is now responsible for the vast majority of cases in the United States. 

Multiple stakeholders attempted to reverse the mask mandate in the United States over the last month as COVID-19 cases saw a dip. American airlines’ effective air filters on modern planes make transmission of the virus during a flight highly unlikely, Associated Press reported.

Most Republican lawmakers in the United States Senate and House of Representatives also attempted to kill the mask mandate, which has been largely lifted from all other sectors.

Critics have seized on the fact that states have rolled back rules requiring masks in restaurants, stores and other indoor settings, and yet COVID-19 cases have fallen sharply since the omicron variant peaked in mid-January.