A US federal court judge Friday denied a motion for a preliminary injunction against Governor Tom Wolf’s ongoing mask mandate and Covid-19 contact tracing program.

The motion was part of a lawsuit filed in the Middle District of the US District Court of Pennsylvania in September. The suit was brought by the American Freedom Law Center on behalf of two families who view a “face mask [a]s a symbol of oppression and an attempt by the government to control the citizenry.” In their complaint, they allege that wearing a mask is a kind of “symbolic speech,” and therefore the governor’s order “compel[s] Plaintiffs to engage in a form of expression and to convey a message with which they disagree.” They further alleged that the contact tracing program is “dangerous” in that it could be abused by unscrupulous actors to sow chaos and discord, as well as potential to be used for illegal surveillance by the government.

In denying their motion, Chief Judge John Jones III found that the families “have not suffered an injury sufficient to warrant judicial review.” He was not unsympathetic, noting that “many of us are weary of continued mitigation efforts.” Frustration alone, however, is not enough “without concrete, particularized and non-hypothetical allegations that are capable of full resolution by this court.”

The plaintiffs have filed an appeal that is still pending.