Judge Blocks Biden’s Federal Employee Vaccine Mandate Nationwide

A federal district judge in Texas temporarily blocked the Biden administration's Covid-19 vaccine mandate for federal employees on Friday as litigation against it moves forward, leaving the White House's policy for healthcare workers as its only vaccine requirement still in effect.

Workers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and their supporters are protesting against a vaccine mandate for federal employees.

Agence France-Presse via Getty Images.

A coalition of federal employees and contractors successfully challenged the policy in court.

President Joe Biden overstepped his authority by implementing the employee mandate with the stroke of a pen and without the input of Congress, according to Brown.

The judge stated that his ruling was not about whether people should get vaccine, but about Biden's lack of authority.

The Supreme Court blocked Biden's vaccine-or-test mandate for large private employers because they argued Covid-19 is a universal risk and not just a workplace risk.

Brown applied the same logic to the federal employee mandate as he did to the Supreme Court decision that Biden cannot require civilian federal employees to submit to the vaccine as a condition of employment.

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget has not responded to a request for comment.

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The judge denied the request to pause the vaccine mandate for federal contractors since a different court already blocked that policy.

Brown wrote that no legal remedy adequately protects the liberty interests of employees who must choose between violating a mandate of doubtful validity or consenting to an unwanted medical procedure that cannot be undone.

The number is big.

98%. The White House reported in December that 92.5% of federal employees had received at least one vaccine dose.

There is a key background.

The vaccine-or-test rule for private employers and vaccine requirements for federal contractors and healthcare workers were imposed by the Biden administration. Even as they remain popular with the American public, judges have now ruled against all four of the mandates. The vaccine requirement for healthcare workers was allowed to take effect after the Supreme Court blocked the private employer rule. The federal contractor policy is before an appeals court after a district court judge blocked the mandate, but the case has not yet made it to the Supreme Court. Friday's ruling marks the first against the federal employee mandate, with Brown noting in his ruling other legal cases against that policy had largely fallen short.

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