Federal court denies Biden request to pause injunction of federal contractor vaccine mandate

by Ryan Meilstrup

The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals this week rejected a request by the Biden administration for a stay of a lower court injunction that prevented enforcement of the vaccine mandate for federal contractors.

This case is not related to the case being heard at the Supreme Court this week which deals with the Biden administration’s vaccine mandates for employers over 100 employees and healthcare workers.

Writing for the majority, Judge John Bush wrote, “The opinion of the court explains that, in this instance, the federal government has ‘re-envisioned ‘the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act by mandating that ‘employees of federal contractors in the covered contract[s]’ with the federal government become fully vaccinated against COVID-19.”

Judge Bush continued, “That directive sweeps in at least one-fifth of our nation’s workforce, possibly more. And so an act establishing an efficient “system of property management,” S. Rep. 1413 at 1 (1948), was transformed into a novel font of federal authority to regulate the private health decisions of millions of Americans. ‘Because the government has established none of the showings required to obtain a stay, we DENY such relief.”

The latest ruling was yet another blow to the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate.

Last month, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals stayed a nationwide injunction placed by the Western District of Louisiana in November. The district court had banned enforcement of the vaccine mandate for health care workers.

Several states have filed lawsuits against the Biden administration with the intention of stopping the vaccine mandate.

In November, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration over its vaccine mandate for federal contractors.

Paxton asked that a federal court declare that Biden’s vaccine mandate was illegal, and issue a preliminary and permanent injunctive relief barring a mandate from being enforced, according to The Hill.

The lawsuit contended that the Biden administration is “using subterfuge to accomplish what they cannot achieve directly—universal compliance with their vaccine mandates, regardless of individual preferences, health care needs, or religious beliefs.”

The filing also claimed that “defendants effectively claim for themselves a general police power to control American life, infringing on state sovereignty and usurping the powers reserved to the states under the Constitution.”

The odds are narrowing for the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate to be upheld. What happens at the Supreme Court could be the end of what many believe is Biden’s unconstitutional vaccine mandate.

Stay tuned to RSBN for the latest vaccine mandate coverage.

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