A federal judge in Georgia issued yesterday a nationwide preliminary injunction that prohibits the government from enforcing the vaccine mandate that applies to federal contractors. The court’s order covers all contractors and subcontractors in the United States and its territories and will be in place until further notice.
This decision follows a similar preliminary injunction issued last week that blocked the federal contractor vaccine mandate in Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee. As a result of today’s ruling, all of the Biden Administration’s signature vaccine mandates that apply to private employers have been preliminarily enjoined nationwide. The only mandates still standing to apply to employees of the federal government and members of the armed forces.
In yesterday’s order, U.S. District Judge R. Stan Baker found that the plaintiffs (various states, state agencies, and Associated Builders and Contractors) “will likely succeed in their claim that the President exceeded the authorization given to him by Congress through the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act when issuing Executive Order 14042.” Although recognizing that the government has laudable goals in mandating the COVID-19 vaccine for contractor employees, Judge Baker noted that the significant public interest in stopping the spread of the virus “does not permit the government to ‘act unlawfully even in pursuit of desirable ends.’”
Judge Baker’s ruling means that the January 4 deadline for covered contractor employees to receive their second vaccination dose (or single dose if receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine) is no longer in place.
On November 6, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit stayed the Emergency Temporary Standard issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which would have required most private sector employers of 100 or more employees to mandate vaccination or require weekly COVID testing. A week later The Fifth Circuit stay, and numerous other challenges to the OSHA standard, have now been transferred to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit for a final decision. Meanwhile, the first compliance deadline of December 6 under the OSHA ETS has come and gone.
Despite the Administration’s recent lost battles, the “vaccine mandate war” is not over. The same judges could ultimately uphold the mandates, or, if they don’t, their decisions could be reversed on appeal.