USA: Vaccination order for federal employees ratified

President Joe Biden’s requirement that all federal government employees be vaccinated against COVID-19 was upheld Thursday by a federal appeals court.

In a two-one vote, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals panel reversed a lower court’s decision and ordered a lawsuit challenging the mandate to be dismissed. The ruling, a rare victory for the government in that New Orleans appeals court, notes that the federal judge did not have jurisdiction in the case and that those challenging the injunction could have pursued administrative remedies under the Civil Service Act.

Biden issued an executive order on September 9 ordering all employees of agencies that report to the executive branch to be vaccinated, with exceptions for religious and medical reasons. District Judge Jeffrey Brown had issued a nationwide injunction against the injunction in January. Brown was appointed to the District Court for the Southern District of Texas by then-President Donald Trump.

When the case was argued in the 5th Circuit last month, attorneys for the federal government noted that district judges in a dozen jurisdictions had rejected a challenge to the vaccination requirement for federal workers before Brown issued his failed.

The government argued that the Constitution gives the president, as the head of the federal workforce, the same authority as the CEO of a private company to require employees to be vaccinated.

Lawyers for those challenging the mandate had cited a recent Supreme Court opinion that the government cannot force private employers to require their workers to receive the vaccine.

Twelve of the 17 active judges in the 5th Circuit were nominated to the court by Republicans, including six appointed by Trump.

Justices Carl Stewart and James Dennis, both nominated to the court by former President Bill Clinton, cast the majority votes. Justice Rhesa Barksdale, a senior justice nominated by President George HW Bush, dissented, saying the relief the challengers sought is not within the ambit covered by the Civil Service Reform Act cited by the government.

–