Federal Court Halts Biden Vaccine Mandate

With more than half of the states, including Utah, suing over the Biden-Harris Administration’s vaccine-or-test mandate, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals last week blocked the new rule.  Referring to “grave statutory and constitutional issues with the mandate,” the court’s ruling means private employers will not be fined for failure to comply – for now.

Though President Biden announced the policy in early September, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) issued a temporary standard on November 5 only to have the court stay the rule the following day.

Under the temporary standard, 80 million American workers would be subject to getting vaccinated or undergoing weekly testing, with heavy fines against employers who don’t enforce the standard.  The conservative Heritage Foundation suggested prior to the ruling that courts would “almost certainly strike down” the OSHA mandate as a misuse of the agency’s statutory authority.

Others question the ability of the small and chronically underfunded OSHA to uniformly enforce the rule.  OSHA has long relied on employee complaints to direct enforcement efforts, but may be unprepared for the tsunami of anticipated snitching that the vaccine mandate could unleash.

Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes applauded the court’s ruling.  “Citizens of Utah can take courage that their elected leaders have confronted this unprecedented expansion of presidential power with a united front and that the courts are paying attention,” he said.

Employers must now determine whether to wait out the temporary reprieve or pre-emptively enforce corporate vaccine mandates in anticipation of a potential ruling in the administration’s favor.