An Alaska state senator requested to be excused from votes until January 2022 due to being banned from Alaska Airlines for violating the federal mask mandate for public transportation.
On September 9, Senator Lora Reinbold, a Republican from Eagle River, made the procedural request to be excused from September 11 to January 15, 2022. She cited her inability to fly directly from Anchorage to Juneau as the reason for her request, and the Senate accepted her request without objections.
In two Facebook posts on September 9 and 14, respectively, Senator Reinbold refuted the notion that she will miss votes during her excusal. “Just because a legislator asked for an ‘excusal’ does not mean they cannot/will not vote. I asked for an ‘excusal’ so I would not impede state legislative business if they placed a ‘call’ on the Senate. I would be traveling the slow route, to get to a likely 4th special session, in Juneau, because the monopoly Alaska Airlines, has me on a political ban,” she wrote. In her other post, she also noted that two other senators had requested longer excusals.
Senator Reinbold has been unable to fly via Alaska Airlines since April, when it banned her from flying for violating the federal government’s mask mandate. In the airline’s statement announcing her ban, it claimed that “Federal law requires all guests to wear a mask over their nose and mouth at all times during travel, including throughout the flight, during boarding and deplaning, and while traveling through an airport.”
However, this statement is false as Congress did not pass any law requiring mask-wearing. Rather, the mask mandate was decreed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention following a similar executive order by President Joe Biden. It is a federal regulation, one that is unconstitutional.
Meanwhile, Reinbold is still managing to travel between her district and Juneau, albeit using less convenient routes. Earlier in the year, she reached Juneau by driving through Canada and reaching the capital by ferry. She also flew between Anchorage and Juneau via Delta Airlines, overlaying in Seattle, though this route is seasonal. Juneau can only be reached by ferry or air, and Alaska Airlines is the only airline that flies there all year.
Senator Reinbold has also come under attack from her Senate colleagues — including her fellow Republicans — for her vocal criticism of COVID-19 government overreach and draconian mandates. For declining to follow the Senate’s mask-wearing requirements, she was banned from most of the Capitol, fined by the Senate Rules Committee, and removed as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
However, if Americans are to rein in COVID overreach and put an end to the tyrannical mask and vaccine mandates, it is imperative to follow Senator Rand Paul’s advice and “simply say no” to the various mandates and other restrictions imposed by all levels of government. This is a perilous time for liberty, and Americans cannot afford to sit back and allow their rights to be snuffed out.
At least one Alaska state senator is standing up for liberty.
To urge your U.S. representative and senators to protect and restore medical freedom in public transportation, visit The John Birch Society’s legislative alert here.
Related: Senator Reinbold Resists COVID Tyranny Goliath in Alaska
