Florida's U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle was appointed under the administration of President Trump in 2020.
On Monday, she overturned the CDC-recommended public transportation mask mandate after two people filed a lawsuit against the Biden Administration last summer.
"Technically, it should have only affected a couple of people and perhaps only in Florida, but she took the unusual step of issuing this universal injunction," said Hamline University Political Science Professor David Schultz — a move lawyers and political science professors say has been scrutinized in the past.
"A universal injunction would be an injunction that applies to all similarly situated parties across the entire country," said Schultz. "It doesn’t just affect parties to the case, but anybody else who could be affected, potentially, by a similar order and in this case, anybody who would be riding on mass transportation."
Schultz says nowadays, individual judges are responsible for making more significant policy decisions, like in the case of the mask mandate. And Schultz says, in theory, that shouldn't happen.
"What’s happening is that issues that should be addressed by Congress and the President are now, by default, going to judges to resolve," said Schultz. "Judges don’t want to do these things, but we’re now asking unelected individuals, who have their jobs for life, of which people don’t have direct control over, to make some of the most consequential policy decisions in our society."
"Judges aren’t supposed to be politicians wearing robes," said Schultz. "They’re supposed to be making disinterested decisions based upon the facts and so this case raises much broader questions than just about a mask mandate."
When Judge Mizelle was originally nominated to her present post, she defended her record in front of the U.S. Senate, which ultimately moved to confirm her.
This came despite the American Bar Association calling Mizelle "unqualified", saying, in part, she was seven years shy of the preferred years of experience — while also acknowledging her integrity and demeanor were not in question.
"This raises an interesting question here regarding the fitness and qualifications for somebody," said Schultz. "A non-qualified would just about be a death nail."
But, Schultz says some politicians nowadays simply care less about such an endorsement for a judge.
He also points to precedent set by both Republican and Democratic appointed judges who, in recent memory, have used an universal injunction to rule on certain policies including the border wall and climate change.
The Biden administration can still decide to appeal Judge Mizelle's decision. That could then go before three more judges, and depending on their decision, could quite possibly make it to the Supreme Court.