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Appeals Court Rules Biden Regime Cannot Enforce Covid Vaccine Mandate on Federal Contractors

December 21, 2022
Jim Hoft

On Monday, a federal appeals court ruled on Monday that the Biden regime’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors could affect as many as 20% of American workers.

Joe Biden’s executive order on contractor vaccinations from September 2021 and was challenged in court by the states of Louisiana, Indiana, and Mississippi. A panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to uphold a lower court ruling to block this executive order.

Judge Kurt Engelhardt, appointed by former President Donald Trump, said in the majority ruling that the  “close nexus test combined with appropriate deference to presidential determinations leaves [Biden] with nearly unlimited authority to introduce requirements into federal contracts.”

Epoch Times reported:

He illustrated his point by saying that Biden could “hypothetically” mandate that all third-party federal contractors’ employees reduce their BMI (body mass index) below a certain number based “on the theory that obesity is a primary contributor to unhealthiness and absenteeism.”

The U.S. government has contracts with hundreds of third-party contractors, and judges have indicated that the issue might affect up to 20 percent of American employees.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita touted the ruling as a legal victory against what he called President Joe Biden’s executive overreach.

Rokita, who joined with two other plaintiff states in the legal action, decried Biden’s “truly unprecedented” use of the federal Procurement Act to wield executive power to impose the mandate on third-party contractors.

“Hoosiers and all Americans should have the liberty to make their own decisions on whether to get vaccinated,” Rokita said in a statement. “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.”

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry called the appeals court’s decision a “victory for freedom.”

“We will continue to stand up against these abuses of power that threaten us now and in the future,” he said in a statement.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court ruled unanimously to uphold a class action injunction protecting Air Force personnel who declined the COVID vaccine from punitive measures.

In the ruling, Judge Murphy wrote, “Under RFRA, the Air Force wrongly relied on its ‘broadly formulated’ reasons for the vaccine mandate to deny specific exemptions to the Plaintiffs, especially since it has granted secular exemptions to their colleagues. We thus may uphold the Plaintiffs’ injunction based on RFRA alone. The Air Force’s treatment of their exemption requests also reveals common questions for the class: Does the Air Force have a uniform policy of relying on its generalized interests in the vaccine mandate to deny religious exemptions regardless of a service member’s individual circumstances? And does it have a discriminatory policy of broadly denying religious exemptions but broadly granting secular ones? A district court can answer these questions in a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ fashion for the entire class. It can answer whether these alleged policies violate RFRA and the First Amendment in the same way. A ruling for the class also would permit uniform injunctive relief against the allegedly illegal policies. We affirm.”

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