Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Thursday that Florida will file suit against the Biden administration’s Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration (OSHA) employer vaccine mandate.
The Biden administration and OSHA is requiring all businesses with 100 or more employees to comply with their Covid-19 vaccine mandate by Jan. 4 or face fines of $14,000 per infraction.
“The State of Florida will immediately challenge the OSHA rule in court because it’s inconsistent with the Constitution and not legally authorized through Congressional statutes,” said DeSantis during a Thursday press briefing.
He continued, “There is no federal police power and the federal government cannot unilaterally impose medical policy under the guise of workplace regulation. Individuals should make informed choices about their own healthcare. It is important to stand up for people’s individual ability to make decisions for themselves.”
DeSantis stated that he would file his lawsuit on Friday in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, noting that it could possibly go all of the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. He also announced that Florida lawmakers will return for a special legislative session on Nov. 15 to draft a bill providing protections for working Floridians.
DeSantis, along with 20 Republican governors across the nation, vowed to take legal action against the Biden administration after Joe Biden announced his vaccine mandates in September.
Biden threatened to get DeSantis and other Republican governors “out of the way” if they did not comply with his mandates.
“If they’ll not help, if these governors won’t help us beat the pandemic, I’ll use my power as president to get them out of the way,” Biden warned.
