The Federal Appeals Court placed a temporary halt to the COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate’s enforcement last week. However, the Biden Administration vowed that it would fight for the mandate and assembled a team administration lawyers to persuade the Appeals Court of lifting the stay. The US Federal Government was unable to enforce the mandate because of this stay.
Tonight, the AP is reporting that the Biden Administration’s effort has failed:
New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted an emergency stay last Saturday of the requirement by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration that those workers be vaccinated by Jan. 4 or face mask requirements and weekly tests.
Lawyers for the Justice and Labor departments filed a response Monday in which they said stopping the mandate from taking effect will only prolong the COVID-19 pandemic and would “cost dozens or even hundreds of lives per day.”
The appeals court, however, rejected Friday’s argument. Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt wrote that the stay “is firmly in the public interest.”
Biden, and others in his administration, believe they have been granted a mandate by Trump’s narrow victory in 2016. However many courts and states are beginning to trim their wings to remind them of the strange and innovative concept that we have Constitutional Government. Despite this latest victory for the several states fighting against the mandate, this isn’t the end of the line for the federal government’s continued efforts to enforce the vaccine mandate.
Continue reading the AP
Since OSHA published its Nov. 4 rules, legal challenges have been filed by at least 27 state governments in at most six federal appellate courts. In court filings, the federal government stated Monday that all cases must be combined and that a circuit court where there has been a legal challenge should be selected at random on November 16 for hearing it.
The states could mount a coordinated defense of the mandates. It should also show significant potential for the enforcement state-by-state COVID-19 vaccination mandates. (Not that we want them). As the US Constitution delegated all non-enumerated federal rights to the states and the citizens, any unenumerated federal powers are reserved to the states. The Federal Power to require people to get vaccinated in the event of a pandemic was not mentioned anywhere in the Constitution. This should not be a problem for the States.
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