SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
U.S. President Joe Biden departs after speaking about the authorization of Covid-19 vaccines for children ages 5-11 on November 3, 2021 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Trump-Appointed Judge Suspends Biden's Vaccine Mandate for Federal Contractors
"The reason that we proposed these requirements is that we know they work, and we are confident in our ability, legally, to make these happen across the country," the White House said in response.
Dec 07, 2021
A federal judge appointed by former President Donald Trump on Tuesday issued a nationwide injunction against the Biden administration's Covid-19 vaccine mandate for employees of federal contractors.
All three of President Joe Biden's vaccination requirements covering the private sector--the mandates for federal contractors and staff at healthcare facilities funded by Medicare or Medicaid plus the jab-or-test rule at large companies--are now frozen across the country as a result of numerous right-wing legal challenges.
In a 28-page ruling, U.S. Judge R. Stan Baker of the Southern District of Georgia argued--as the nation's Covid-19 death toll approached 800,000--that Biden likely exceeded his constitutional authority by requiring federal contractors' employees to be fully vaccinated by January 18.
Enforcement of the rule had already been halted in Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee by another federal judge, but Baker's order--which comes in response to a lawsuit filed by seven GOP-led states--prevents the Biden administration from enforcing its vaccine mandate for federal contractors anywhere in the country while the case unfolds in court.
Although it was praised by public health experts who have emphasized the need to boost inoculation rates to overcome the ongoing pandemic, Biden's September executive order establishing vaccination requirements for more than 100 million private sector workers has faced a barrage of lawsuits from Republican officials.
After Biden announced last month that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) would soon begin enforcing a lifesaving Emergency Temporary Standard that includes vaccination, testing, and mask-wearing rules at companies with 100 or more workers, several attorneys general sued.
In response, a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit--which Trump pushed in an even more conservative direction by appointing numerous far-right judges--issued a temporary injunction. While the Department of Justice stressed in its appeal that the Labor Department has the legal authority to protect workers amid a deadly public health emergency, the panel upheld its stay.
As a result, OSHA has suspended enforcement of the rule, pending further legal developments. At least 34 related lawsuits have been filed, many by GOP-led states, in federal appeals courts across the nation. A federal judicial panel has consolidated the lawsuits and randomly assigned the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. That court has a Republican majority, though it remains unclear which judges will hear the case.
In the meantime--and ahead of an anticipated spike in Covid-19 cases this winter, as colder weather forces people to spend more time indoors and breakthrough infections become more common due to waning immunity--medical professionals have urged employers to swiftly implement Biden's contested vaccine rules on a voluntary basis.
Recent studies confirm that vaccines save lives. In September, researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that individuals in the U.S. who were not fully vaccinated last spring and summer were 11 times more likely to die after being infected with the coronavirus--and over 10 times more likely to be hospitalized--than those who had been completely inoculated.
According to Bloomberg Law, "Baker echoed what his Kentucky counterpart said, that blocking the mandate didn't indicate that the vaccine wouldn't be effective to stopping the spread of Covid-19, but rather that Biden didn't have the power to issue such an executive order."
In response to the latest setback, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday that "the reason that we proposed these requirements is that we know they work, and we are confident in our ability, legally, to make these happen across the country."
Roughly 64% of the U.S. population over five years of age has been fully inoculated against Covid-19, according to the CDC. Recent polling shows that a majority of U.S. adults favor Covid-19 vaccination requirements, with only about one-fifth to one-quarter of respondents opposed.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Kenny Stancil
Kenny Stancil is senior researcher at the Revolving Door Project and a former staff writer for Common Dreams.
A federal judge appointed by former President Donald Trump on Tuesday issued a nationwide injunction against the Biden administration's Covid-19 vaccine mandate for employees of federal contractors.
All three of President Joe Biden's vaccination requirements covering the private sector--the mandates for federal contractors and staff at healthcare facilities funded by Medicare or Medicaid plus the jab-or-test rule at large companies--are now frozen across the country as a result of numerous right-wing legal challenges.
In a 28-page ruling, U.S. Judge R. Stan Baker of the Southern District of Georgia argued--as the nation's Covid-19 death toll approached 800,000--that Biden likely exceeded his constitutional authority by requiring federal contractors' employees to be fully vaccinated by January 18.
Enforcement of the rule had already been halted in Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee by another federal judge, but Baker's order--which comes in response to a lawsuit filed by seven GOP-led states--prevents the Biden administration from enforcing its vaccine mandate for federal contractors anywhere in the country while the case unfolds in court.
Although it was praised by public health experts who have emphasized the need to boost inoculation rates to overcome the ongoing pandemic, Biden's September executive order establishing vaccination requirements for more than 100 million private sector workers has faced a barrage of lawsuits from Republican officials.
After Biden announced last month that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) would soon begin enforcing a lifesaving Emergency Temporary Standard that includes vaccination, testing, and mask-wearing rules at companies with 100 or more workers, several attorneys general sued.
In response, a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit--which Trump pushed in an even more conservative direction by appointing numerous far-right judges--issued a temporary injunction. While the Department of Justice stressed in its appeal that the Labor Department has the legal authority to protect workers amid a deadly public health emergency, the panel upheld its stay.
As a result, OSHA has suspended enforcement of the rule, pending further legal developments. At least 34 related lawsuits have been filed, many by GOP-led states, in federal appeals courts across the nation. A federal judicial panel has consolidated the lawsuits and randomly assigned the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. That court has a Republican majority, though it remains unclear which judges will hear the case.
In the meantime--and ahead of an anticipated spike in Covid-19 cases this winter, as colder weather forces people to spend more time indoors and breakthrough infections become more common due to waning immunity--medical professionals have urged employers to swiftly implement Biden's contested vaccine rules on a voluntary basis.
Recent studies confirm that vaccines save lives. In September, researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that individuals in the U.S. who were not fully vaccinated last spring and summer were 11 times more likely to die after being infected with the coronavirus--and over 10 times more likely to be hospitalized--than those who had been completely inoculated.
According to Bloomberg Law, "Baker echoed what his Kentucky counterpart said, that blocking the mandate didn't indicate that the vaccine wouldn't be effective to stopping the spread of Covid-19, but rather that Biden didn't have the power to issue such an executive order."
In response to the latest setback, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday that "the reason that we proposed these requirements is that we know they work, and we are confident in our ability, legally, to make these happen across the country."
Roughly 64% of the U.S. population over five years of age has been fully inoculated against Covid-19, according to the CDC. Recent polling shows that a majority of U.S. adults favor Covid-19 vaccination requirements, with only about one-fifth to one-quarter of respondents opposed.
Kenny Stancil
Kenny Stancil is senior researcher at the Revolving Door Project and a former staff writer for Common Dreams.
A federal judge appointed by former President Donald Trump on Tuesday issued a nationwide injunction against the Biden administration's Covid-19 vaccine mandate for employees of federal contractors.
All three of President Joe Biden's vaccination requirements covering the private sector--the mandates for federal contractors and staff at healthcare facilities funded by Medicare or Medicaid plus the jab-or-test rule at large companies--are now frozen across the country as a result of numerous right-wing legal challenges.
In a 28-page ruling, U.S. Judge R. Stan Baker of the Southern District of Georgia argued--as the nation's Covid-19 death toll approached 800,000--that Biden likely exceeded his constitutional authority by requiring federal contractors' employees to be fully vaccinated by January 18.
Enforcement of the rule had already been halted in Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee by another federal judge, but Baker's order--which comes in response to a lawsuit filed by seven GOP-led states--prevents the Biden administration from enforcing its vaccine mandate for federal contractors anywhere in the country while the case unfolds in court.
Although it was praised by public health experts who have emphasized the need to boost inoculation rates to overcome the ongoing pandemic, Biden's September executive order establishing vaccination requirements for more than 100 million private sector workers has faced a barrage of lawsuits from Republican officials.
After Biden announced last month that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) would soon begin enforcing a lifesaving Emergency Temporary Standard that includes vaccination, testing, and mask-wearing rules at companies with 100 or more workers, several attorneys general sued.
In response, a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit--which Trump pushed in an even more conservative direction by appointing numerous far-right judges--issued a temporary injunction. While the Department of Justice stressed in its appeal that the Labor Department has the legal authority to protect workers amid a deadly public health emergency, the panel upheld its stay.
As a result, OSHA has suspended enforcement of the rule, pending further legal developments. At least 34 related lawsuits have been filed, many by GOP-led states, in federal appeals courts across the nation. A federal judicial panel has consolidated the lawsuits and randomly assigned the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. That court has a Republican majority, though it remains unclear which judges will hear the case.
In the meantime--and ahead of an anticipated spike in Covid-19 cases this winter, as colder weather forces people to spend more time indoors and breakthrough infections become more common due to waning immunity--medical professionals have urged employers to swiftly implement Biden's contested vaccine rules on a voluntary basis.
Recent studies confirm that vaccines save lives. In September, researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that individuals in the U.S. who were not fully vaccinated last spring and summer were 11 times more likely to die after being infected with the coronavirus--and over 10 times more likely to be hospitalized--than those who had been completely inoculated.
According to Bloomberg Law, "Baker echoed what his Kentucky counterpart said, that blocking the mandate didn't indicate that the vaccine wouldn't be effective to stopping the spread of Covid-19, but rather that Biden didn't have the power to issue such an executive order."
In response to the latest setback, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday that "the reason that we proposed these requirements is that we know they work, and we are confident in our ability, legally, to make these happen across the country."
Roughly 64% of the U.S. population over five years of age has been fully inoculated against Covid-19, according to the CDC. Recent polling shows that a majority of U.S. adults favor Covid-19 vaccination requirements, with only about one-fifth to one-quarter of respondents opposed.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.