Federal Judge Blocks Vaccine Requirement for Federal Contractors Nationwide
According to a Dec. 7 article from CNN by Tierney Sneed, a federal judge in Georgia blocked the Biden administration's enforcement of a vaccine requirement for certain federal contractors nationwide.
Sneed reports that “The order means that all three major Biden vaccine policies for people not employed by the federal government—the mandates for contractors, certain health care workers and employees of larger companies—are frozen across the country.”
Further, “The contractor mandate had already been blocked in Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee after an order was issued in a separate case.”
Sneed explains that the case was originally brought by seven states, led by Georgia. The six other states are Alabama, Indiana, Kansas, South Carolina, Utah, and West Virginia. Additionally, a trade group for building contractors joined the suit.
“Associated Builders and Contractors, a trade organization, as well as its local Georgia chapter, sought to intervene in the case—a request the judge partially granted,” Sneed writes. “The national trade organization had also asked the judge to block the mandate—leading him to block the vaccine rules nationwide while the case plays out.”
“U.S. District Judge Stan Baker [Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia] said in his order that blocking the federal contractor policy would ‘essentially, do nothing more than maintain the status quo; entities will still be free to encourage their employees to get vaccinated, and the employees will still be free to choose to be vaccinated,’ Sneed continues.
Baker also wrote that “In contrast, declining to issue a preliminary injunction would force Plaintiffs to comply with the mandate, requiring them to make decisions which would significantly alter their ability to perform federal contract work which is critical to their operations.”
In a Dec. 7 article from Reuters by Tom Hals, Hals reports that “The contractor requirement was meant to improve efficiency among government suppliers by reducing outbreaks and was far-reaching, applying even to those working remotely.”
“’Abuse of power by the Biden administration has been stopped cold again,’ Republican South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who joined the lawsuit, said in a statement,” Hals writes.
According to a Dec. 7 article from Politico, a White House spokeswoman said the Justice Department would not stop defending the mandate.
The article states that “’The reason that we proposed these requirements is that we know they work, and we are confident in our ability, legally, to make these happen across the country,’ White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at Tuesday’s briefing.”
Now all three of President Biden’s vaccine mandates for the private sector have been put on hold. We reported on Nov. 11 that 10 state attorneys general sued the Biden administration over the CMS vaccine mandate that had been created through the issuance of an interim final rule, asserting federal overreach.
On Nov. 19, we reported that West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey’s office published a press release announcing that West Virginia, and 11 other states, joined a lawsuit against the Biden Administration in opposing COVID-19 vaccine mandates for healthcare workers, including those working for Medicare and Medicaid certified providers and suppliers. Kentucky and Ohio joined the case in the following weeks.
On Nov. 30, we reported that a federal judge in Missouri has temporarily blocked the Biden administration vaccine mandate for healthcare workers in 10 states.
On Dec. 2 we reported that the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana has granted a preliminary injunction enjoining the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) from enforcing its COVID-19 vaccine mandate nationwide.
The military and civilian government employee mandates have not been put on hold.
