A federal judge in Texas blocked President Joe Biden’s executive order requiring that all federal employees and contractors receive COVID-19 vaccinations.
“The President’s authority is not that broad,” District Court Judge Jeffrey Vincent Brown wrote in a 20 page opinion, noting that his ruling was “not about whether folks should get vaccinated against COVID-19″ and was not about the federal government’s power, exercised properly, to mandate vaccination of its employees.”
Instead, Brown explained, “it is instead about whether the President can, with the stroke of a pen and without the input of Congress, require millions of federal employees to undergo a medical procedure as a condition of their employment.”
Biden’s executive order, issued on Sept. 9, was “a bridge too far” under current law, Brown added. (RELATED: Biden Announces Stricter Vaccine Mandate For Federal Workers, Contractors)
Judge Jeffrey Vincent Brown in the Texas Southern District has ruled for the plaintiffs in Feds for Medical Freedom v. Biden, enjoining the vaccine mandate for federal employees nationally.https://t.co/aDA4auX7kA pic.twitter.com/TEjeFRV8xG
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) January 21, 2022
The group Feds for Medical Freedom, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, will march in Washington, D.C., in a protest of Biden’s executive order Jan. 23.
The Department of Justice will appeal the ruling, the Associated Press reported. White House press secretary Jen Psaki added that 98% of federal employees have received at least one COVID-19 vaccination, a number that she described as “remarkable.”
The Supreme Court rejected an Occupational Health and Safety Administration rule Jan. 13 that would require all private businesses with more than 100 employees to require vaccinations or a comprehensive COVID-19 testing regime as a condition of employment. It allowed a mandate directed at health care workers at facilities that accept Medicare and Medicaid funds to go forward.