Joe Biden filed an immediate lawsuit Tuesday in order to reinstate his mandatory vaccine mandate for private companies employing more than 100 employees. The emergency suit was brought after several legal challenges were raised against the rule.
The Fifth Circuit Court of New Orleans gave a temporary pause to the order earlier this month. This prevented the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) from proceeding with the implementation of the employer rules.
According to The Wall Street Journal’s filings, the Justice Department claims that the regulations reflect OSHA’s decision that such measures are needed to reduce Covid-19 transmission at work and to protect workers from the severe health effects of the virus.
Many Republican-led States, Employers, Unions, and Other Organizations filed suit against the Administration’s Order.
Biden’s court motion was filed by the DOJ with the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, which a federal judicial panel on multidistrict litigation designated last week as the court that will decide legal challenges related to Biden’s vaccine-or-test rule. All the cases related to this order were condensed to this court.
In part OSHA’s illegal overreach to the private sector is what law suits consolidate. Some claim the mandate is not sufficient to protect workers against coronavirus.
The new rule requires that workers get vaccinated by January 4, 2022 or else be tested weekly – in most cases on their one dime – and wear masks in the workplace.
Employers could be fined up to $13,653 for each violation, or $136.532 if the employer was found guilty of repeat offenses or intentionally violating the rules.
The Justice Department of President Joe Biden filed a suit with the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in an attempt to reimplement mandated workplace vaccinations.
The US has been highly critical of vaccine mandates.
This mandate will affect approximately 84 million workers in the United States, including those employed by companies of 100 employees or less.
According to OSHA’s filing with the DOJ on Tuesday, the mandate could save over 6,500 workers in the private sector and reduce more than 250,000 hospitalizations per year.
OSHA declared last Wednesday that it would suspend implementation and enforcement of the order. This was after the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals had upheld the stay. OSHA was ordered to not implement or enforce the emergency order until further court orders.
OSHA’s website said that OSHA was confident in OSHA’s ability to provide emergency protection for workers. However, OSHA had suspended enforcement and implementation activities of the ETS while it waited for developments in litigation.
After the original spring rollout, vaccination rates dropped over the summer.
Circuit Court Judge Kurt Engelhardt said in the majority opinion that the mandate was too restrictive and that there are ‘grave concerns’ about the legality or constitutionality of the edict.
According to the opinion, “The mandate is shockingly broad.” “The mandate, which is one-size fits all and makes no attempt to accommodate differences between workplaces (and workers),” the opinion stated.
OSHA rules claiming ‘virtually unlimited authority to control individual behavior under the pretext of workplace regulations’ were incorrectly interpreted by the Fifth Circuit.
The DOJ promised to ‘vigorously defend’ Biden’s vaccine mandate after it was held up by federal court – as evident by its court filing on Tuesday.
When all cases related to the mandate were transferred to Cincinnati, the Fifth Circuit was no longer able to hear them.
Now, the Sixth Circuit might be empowered to lift the Fifth Circuit’s stay. This is exactly what the administration has requested in its lawsuit.