In September, Biden announced a vaccine mandate for all federal employees. In January of this year, a federal judge in Texas blocked the enforcement of Biden’s mandate shortly after the Supreme Court struck down a vaccine requirement for private companies.
In a partisan 2-1 decision made by two Clinton appointees, with a judge appointed by President Bush dissenting, the 5th Circuit Appeals Court upheld Biden’s vaccine mandate in a ruling made today.
Judges Carl Stewart and James Dennis ruled that the President has a right to mandate vaccines for federal employees in the same way that private companies have a right to for their employees.
Judge Rhesa Barksdale dissented, saying that the mandate does not fall under the Civil Service Reform Act, the law that Biden’s administration used to justify forcing over 2 million federal employees to get vaccinated.
Roughly 93% of federal employees were reported to be vaccinated as of December of 2021.
US News Reports–
“President Joe Biden’s requirement that all federal employees be vaccinated against COVID-19 was upheld Thursday by a federal appeals court.
In a 2-1 ruling, a panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans reversed a lower court and ordered dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the mandate.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown, who was appointed to the District Court for the Southern District of Texas by President Donald Trump, had issued a nationwide injunction against the requirement in January.
When the case was argued at the 5th Circuit last month, administration lawyers had noted that district judges in a dozen jurisdictions had rejected a challenge to the vaccine requirement for federal workers before Brown ruled.
The administration argued that the Constitution gives the president, as the head of the federal workforce, the same authority as the CEO of a private corporation to require that employees be vaccinated.”
