Those who oppose Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate scored a big win last week when the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary stay on enforcement of the mandate pending further judicial review.
The stay only applies to the states under the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals’ jurisdiction, which includes Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
But, according to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, it is an “excellent” win nonetheless for those who oppose the vaccine mandate – and it could set the stage for an appeal to the United States Supreme Court.
The ruling applies to Biden’s order that all employers with over 100 employees must ensure their employees are vaccinated or are tested weekly. Failure to enforce the mandate would be punished by large fines per each employee who is unvaccinated.
According to Newsweek, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) “was not to take any steps to ‘implement or enforce the mandate’ until a decision was made in court.”
The ruling judge, Judge Kurt Engelhardt, wrote that “It is clear that a denial of the petitioners’ proposed stay would do them irreparable harm.”
The lawsuit was filed by Utah and was joined by Texas, South Carolina, and Mississippi.
Following Biden’s September announcement, a group of Republican state attorneys general sent a letter to Biden warning that they were prepared to take legal action if he did not rescind his vaccine mandate order.
The group of Republican state attorneys general released a statement at the time that said, “The vaccines have helped protect millions of Americans, and there are surely others who could benefit from obtaining this treatment,” they claimed.
“But convincing those who are hesitant to do so would require you to allow room for discussion and disagreement. Instead, you have offered the American people flimsy legal arguments, contradictory statements, and threatening directives,” the group of attorneys general said, also warning that Biden’s goal was “to sow division and distrust, rather than promote unity and the public’s health.”
There is also a separate lawsuit making its way through the court system that takes aim at Biden’s vaccine mandate which applies to federal workers and contractors. Last month, 19 states filed four separate lawsuits attempting to stop Joe Biden’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors. Like the employee mandate case, the litigation against the federal contractor mandate could reach the Supreme Court.
