The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed its decision to place a temporary stay on President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate that would require employers with 100 or more workers to get vaccinated or get tested for the virus weekly. The court demanded on Friday that U.S. Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration to “take no steps to implement or enforce the Mandate until further court order.”
The court’s original stay came after joint entities in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Utah legally challenged the mandate. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a leader in the fight against Biden’s coercive mandate, applauded the court on Twitter.
“Citing Texas’s ‘compelling arguments’ the 5th Circuit has stayed OSHA’s unconstitutional and illegal private-business vaccine mandate,” Paxton tweeted. “WE WON! Litigation will continue, but this is a massive victory for Texas and for FREEDOM from Biden’s tyranny and lawlessness.”
Citing Texas’s “compelling argument[s],” the 5th Circuit has stayed OSHA’s unconstitutional and illegal private-business vaccine mandate.
WE WON! Litigation will continue, but this is a massive victory for #Texas and for FREEDOM from Biden’s tyranny and lawlessness.
— Texas Attorney General (@TXAG) November 12, 2021
More than two dozen state attorney generals contested the OSHA-issued mandate less than a day after the law was released.
“Your plan is disastrous and counterproductive,” the attorney generals wrote Biden. “From a policy perspective, this edict is unlikely to win hearts and minds — it will simply drive further skepticism. And at least some Americans will simply leave the job market instead of complying.”
“If your administration does not alter its course, the undersigned state Attorneys General will seek every available legal option to hold you accountable and uphold the rule of law,” they added.
The mandate, issued by OSHA, would impact more than 80 million Americans — 32 million of those workers, who are unvaccinated, will be forced to get the vaccine, get tested weekly, or lose their jobs come January when the mandate is enforced.
On Monday, the Biden administration told businesses to move forward with the mandate, despite the court’s temporary halt to the rules.
“People should not wait,” said White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. “They should continue to move forward and make sure they’re getting their workplace vaccinated.” The administration claimed the stay “would likely cost dozens or even hundreds of lives per day.”
