White House Tells Businesses to Ignore Court Order Barring Biden's Vaccine Mandate

On Saturday, a federal court halted the Biden administration's vaccine mandate for businesses with 100 or more workers, citing possible "grave statutory and constitutional issues."

The emergency stay, issued by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, puts a hold on the administration’s requirement that those workers be vaccinated by Jan. 4 or face other measures, such as weekly tests and mask requirements.

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry had argued the Biden administration “could not impose medical procedures on the American people without the checks and balances afforded by the constitution."

On Monday, despite the court’s order, the White House said companies should proceed with President Biden’s vaccine mandate, which carries fines up to $700,000 on companies that do not comply.

“People should not wait,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters. “They should continue to move forward and make sure they’re getting their workplace vaccinated.”

A ‘Misconception’ about Vaccine Mandates

The 5th Circuit’s stay should come as little surprise. While there is a long history of vaccine mandates in the United States, there is no legal precedent for a vaccine mandate at the federal level.

This is why Lawrence Gostin, a Fulbright scholar and chair of global health law at Georgetown University, told NPR the Biden Administration had no authority to issue a nationwide vaccine mandate shortly before the White House announced its order.

“I should say that it's a misconception that President Biden has the power to have a nationwide vaccine mandate,” Gostin said in August. “Traditionally, vaccine mandates have been imposed by cities and states.”

The Biden administration disagrees, claiming legal authority under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, which allows OSHA to enforce rules that are “reasonably necessary or appropriate to provide safe or healthful employment and places of employment.”

“We are pretty confident. The administration clearly has the authority,” Jean-Pierre told reporters last week. “The actions announced by the president are designed to save lives.”

The legal battle over vaccine mandates is just heating up. But it’s important to remember that regardless of how the Supreme Court rules, vaccine mandates are unjust and morally wrong because they violate individual rights—the only rights the federal government was charged with protecting.

When the Founding Fathers created the United States, they set out to create a government grounded in liberalism (in the classical sense). Pioneered by John Locke, this vision held that each person has equal and inalienable rights to their life, liberty, and property.

Many will point out that at its conception, not all Americans enjoyed these rights, and they’d be correct. But that’s not the point. The point is that the purpose of the federal government was to protect individual rights. To that end, the Framers created a Constitution with specific “enumerated powers” which clearly defined what the federal government could do to protect these rights.

“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined,” James Madison wrote in The Federalist Papers. “Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected.”

The fact that state governments have different powers and authority than the federal government can result in situations that are often confusing and messy, as the recent confrontation between the White House and the 5th Circuit shows. But this is actually a strength of the American system, not a weakness.

Checks and balances are something every American child learns in civics class, and it’s an idea that enjoys bipartisan support for a reason. Checks and balances are designed to frustrate centralized power; they are the shield of liberty.

“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands,” Madison wrote, “whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”

The Biden Administration’s decision to tell businesses to simply ignore the 5th U.S. Circuit’s stay isn’t just an affront to the court. It’s an affront to the checks and balances that strengthen the American system.

The White House should heed the words of a famous American president.

“....when the checks and balances in government and society that protect fundamental freedoms are lost, violence and mass atrocities can result.” https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/white-house-tells-businesses-to-ignore-the-court-order-that-halted-biden-s-vaccine-mandate/

Lummy wrote:In 20 years I doubt anyone will remember who Joe Biden was.

..................... The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, considered one of the most conservative appellate courts in the country, halted the requirements Saturday pending review, writing that “the petitions give cause to believe there are grave statutory and constitutional issues with the Mandate.”

The Republican attorneys general in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Utah, as well as several companies, requested the pause. They argued that the requirements exceed the authority of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which will enforce the mandates, and amount to an unconstitutional delegation of power to the executive branch by Congress.

In its response Monday evening, the Biden administration asked the court to lift the pause, dismissing the states’ and companies’ claims of harm as “premature” given that the deadlines for vaccination and testing are not until January. The administration claimed that pausing the requirements “would likely cost dozens or even hundreds of lives per day” as the virus spreads. The Labor and Justice Departments also argued that OSHA acted within its authority as established by Congress.

The court-ordered pause came a day after the requirements went into effect, starting the countdown for businesses with 100 or more employees to ensure their staff have received the shots required for full vaccination by Jan. 4. After that date, unvaccinated workers must submit a negative Covid-19 test weekly to enter the workplace. All unvaccinated workers must start wearing face masks indoors at their workplaces starting Dec. 5.

Republican attorneys general in at least 26 states have challenged Biden’s vaccine and testing requirements in five different U.S. appeals courts since last Friday. The Republican National Committee said it has also challenged the requirements in the D.C. Court of Appeals.

It’s unclear which court will ultimately decide the case. When multiple petitions are filed in at least two courts, the cases are consolidated in one of those courts through a lottery system. The Justice Department said in a filing Monday that the lottery is expected take place on or around Nov. 16. The Biden administration, in its response Monday, said the courts should not rule until the jurisdiction for the consolidated case has been selected.

David Vladeck, a professor of law at Georgetown University, said there’s a “high probability” that the case will end up before the Supreme Court. .................

Calypso Jones wrote:I don't  believe for one minute  that more than half this nation is  vaxxed.

Calypso Jones wrote:I don't  believe for one minute  that more than half this nation is  vaxxed.