The Biden administration's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors and subcontractors was delivered another blow Monday when a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower-court injunction on the policy.
The panel voted 2-1 to uphold the injunction that applies only to plaintiffs Indiana, Louisiana and Mississippi. Judges Don Willett and Kurt Engelhardt, Donald Trump appointees, voted in the majority. James Graves Jr., appointed by Barack Obama, dissented.
In August, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower-court injunction on the mandate involving seven states — Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia — and federal contracts and subcontracts with members of the Associated Builders and Contractors.
President Joe Biden issued an executive order in September 2021 requiring federal contractors to include a clause requiring contractors, any subcontractors and all employees to be vaccinated against the virus. Indiana, Louisiana and Mississippi filed suit seeking an injunction; and in December 2021, Senior Judge Dee Drell of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana complied.
In Monday’s 43-page ruling, the majority on the appeals panel wrote, "The president asks this court to ratify an exercise of proprietary authority that would permit him to unilaterally impose a health care decision on one-fifth of all employees in the United States. We decline to do so."
The government argued the president had broad authority to issue the mandate through the federal Procurement Act. But the court determined Biden's use of the act to claim executive power to impose the mandate on individual employees of federal contractors is "truly unprecedented." And because Congress had not acted on a vaccine mandate, the court ruled Biden was exceeding his power.
"Today, we are asked, where Congress has not authorized the issuance of this mandate, whether the president may nonetheless exercise this power. We hold that he may not," the court ruled.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, a Republican, said he was pleased with the ruling.
"Hoosiers and all Americans should have the liberty to make their own decisions on whether to get vaccinated," Rokita said. "That includes individuals who happen to work as federal contractors. No one should have to fear losing their jobs just because they opt against getting a shot."
In an email to Newsmax, Michelle Williams, chief of staff to Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, a Republican, said: "We are pleased that the court agreed that absent congressional authorization the president has no authority to exercise this massive power over one-fifth of the American workforce. President Biden's vaccine mandates are an affront to foundational American principles, and we will continue to fight them."
The Biden administration has not tried to enforce the mandate because of the litigation. It is not known whether the administration will appeal the ruling.
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