Utah Joins Lawsuit Over Federal Vaccine Mandates

Utah Governor Spencer Cox, citing a pattern of executive overreach by the Biden-Harris Administration, announced on Friday that the State of Utah became the seventh state to join a Georgia-based lawsuit against President Joe Biden’s federal vaccine mandate, with additional states projected to join the suit.  Florida filed a separate lawsuit targeting NASA and other federal agencies.

The mandate’s requirement that federal contractors force their employees to be vaccinated under threat of losing their jobs is designed to reduce the spread of COVID-19. The disease has factored into the deaths of almost 750,000 Americans.

Announcing the mandate back in September, President Biden said, “We’ve been patient.  But our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us.”  Biden indicated unvaccinated Americans “can cause a lot of damage, and they are.”

Utah’s all-Republican state leadership counters that the vaccine mandate is costing all of us as well, doing a different kind of damage.  Utah leaders warn the mandate is “unnecessarily exacerbating stress on the supply chain, damaging the economy, forcing workers to leave jobs and hurting American families.”  The joint statement was supported by the Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, Senate President, Speaker of the House, State Auditor and State Treasurer.