12 More States Sue Biden Administration Over Vaccine Mandate

Twelve states announced Monday they are suing the Biden Administration to block the vaccine mandate for health care workers, arguing the mandate is unconstitutional and violates several federal laws.

Attorney generals from Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia announced the suit Monday, saying “the Biden Administration is playing statutory shell games with the courts, straining to justify an unjustifiable and unprecedented attempt to federalize public health policy and diminish the sovereign States’ constitutional powers.”

“No statute authorizes the federal Executive to mandate vaccines to increase societal immunity,” the suit reads, noting President Joe Biden has touted the vaccine as a way to increase immunity. “The Administration’s solution? Use statutory schemes never before interpreted to allow federal vaccine mandates to shoehorn the President’s goals into the fabric of American society.”

The suit argues against the mandate requiring Medicare and Medicaid health care workers to be vaccinated is unconstitutional and harms patient care as employees are forced to either take the shot or lose their job.

“The Vaccine Mandate causes grave danger to vulnerable persons whom Medicare and Medicaid were designed to protect – the poor, sick, and elderly – by forcing the termination of millions of ‘healthcare heroes’,” the suit reads.

The states’ are asking for a preliminary injunction to halt the enforcement of the mandate.

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen called the mandate as “unconstitutional power grab.”

“The federal mandates are not about health – they are about forced compliance. Healthcare workers should be allowed to make their own decisions about their health – not President Biden. If his unprecedented overreach is not stopped, healthcare workers will lose their jobs threatening access to medical care that Montanans need.”

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said “this is about so much more than vaccines. It’s about planting a flag to say that ‘enough is enough.’ The federal government’s power is not boundless, but if we are vigilant to fight here and now, there will be no going back.”

Health care employees who work at facilities that accept federal funding from Medicare or Medicaid must be fully vaccinated by Jan. 4 and do not have the option to submit to regular testing rather than get vaccinated.

The court then later reaffirmed their decision, ruling the mandate likely “violates the constitutional structure that safeguards our collective liberty” and that the mandate was “staggeringly overbroad.”

COLUMN BY

BRIANNA LYMAN

Reporter. Follow Brianna on Twitter

RELATED TWEET:

"This is just the tip of the iceberg." @GovRonDeSantis challenged the Biden Admin's OSHA mandate along with other states; now the mandate is blocked. And the Florida House just passed legislation to protect Floridians' jobs & parents' rights. Freedom has a home here! pic.twitter.com/8t4ugOQx3C

— Christina Pushaw 🐊 (@ChristinaPushaw) November 17, 2021

RELATED ARTICLES:

6th Circuit Court To Hear Challenge To Biden Vaccine Mandate

Biden Administration Relying On Informants To Enforce Vaccine Mandates