Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state of Florida sued President Joe Biden, NASA, and other government agencies over the "unlawful" COVID-19 vaccine mandates that require federal contractors to get vaccinated, and "threaten" the state's economy.
Biden early last month announced plans to impose vaccine mandates on federal employees and businesses with 100 or more employees. Unvaccinated workers must get tested regularly.
The Republican governor and state Attorney General Ashley Moody filed the lawsuit, first reported by Fox News, against Biden, NASA, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, and officials within the White House Office of Management and Budget, and the Department of Defense over the vaccine mandates.
The lawsuit was filed Thursday morning in U.S. District Court in the middle district of Florida's Tampa division, Bloomberg News reports.
Biden's mandate requires federal contractors to ensure workers are fully vaccinated by Dec. 8.
Florida's lawsuit argues that NASA, and others, "frequently contracts with Florida, has current contractual relationships with Florida, and is and will continue to seek to impose the Biden administration’s unlawful requirements to Florida."
"Because the government’s unlawful vaccine requirement seeks to interfere with Florida’s employment policies and threaten Florida with economic harm and the loss of federal contracts, the State seeks relief from this Court," the lawsuit states, Fox News reported.
The lawsuit says the vaccine mandate would force Florida to require vaccinations of certain state officials who work on projects with federal contractors.
The Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral is located on Florida’s east coast, about 50 miles southeast of Orlando.
Earlier this month, DeSantis vowed to fight Biden's COVID-19 vaccine mandate on employers and workers in federal court and through legislation.
"Let's not have Biden come in and effectively take away — threaten to take away — the jobs of people who have been working hard throughout this entire pandemic," DeSantis said during a news conference in Fort Myers. "I am offended that a police officer could potentially lose their job."
The governor last week said he would call together a special session of the Florida legislature to ban COVID-19 vaccine mandates on businesses.
Florida previously sued the Biden administration over its "illegal" catch-and-release policies at the U.S.-Mexico border. The lawsuit says the administration's policies force Florida to "incur millions of dollars in expenses" as a result of migrants being relocated to the state.
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