A federal appeals court on Saturday blocked the Biden administration’s private employer COVID-19 vaccine mandate, asserting there may be constitutional issues with the requirement.
“Because the petitions give cause to believe there are grave statutory and constitutional issues with the mandate, the mandate is hereby STAYED pending further action by this court,” a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said in the brief order.
The halt of the mandate, which was unveiled this week, is temporary as the case moves forward.
The case was brought by multiple businesses, including the American Family Association; multiple individuals; and several states, including Texas, Utah, and Mississippi.
Petitioners said the mandate, promulgated as an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), should be struck down because it exceeds OSHA’s authority under the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
They said that the authority is limited to workplace-related hazards while the risk from COVID-19 is “a society-wide danger.” They also said the mandate doesn’t make sense because determining whether COVID-19 is a workplace hazard depends on employees’ age and health, not how many co-workers they have.
“In an attempt to impose a nationwide vaccination mandate without approval from Congress, the executive branch has couched its COVID-19 vaccine mandate as an emergency workplace rule affecting nearly 100 million Americans. But the ETS is neither a workplace rule nor responsive to an emergency,” lawyers for the petitioners wrote in an emergency motion asking the court to impose a stay.
“Vaccination status is a public health issue that affects people throughout society; it is not a hazard particular to the workplace. And there is no need to use an emergency rule to address a pandemic that has been going on for nearly two years. Congress did not grant OSHA such sweeping powers in its authorizing statute,” they added.
Administration officials have in recent days said they’re confident the OSHA rule will withstand the flurry of legal challenges that were lodged after it was made public.
Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that the administration is prepared to defend the mandate in court.
“The U.S. Department of Labor is confident in its legal authority to issue the emergency temporary standard on vaccination and testing. The Occupational Safety and Health Act explicitly gives OSHA the authority to act quickly in an emergency where the agency finds that workers are subjected to a grave danger and a new standard is necessary to protect them,” she said.
Brandon Trosclair, a petitioner who employs nearly 500 people across grocery stores in Louisiana and Mississippi, said in a statement that the ruling is “an incredible first victory for all Americans,” adding that the appeals court “quickly realized that the Biden employer vaccine mandate would cause great harm to businesses like mine.”
“The court’s action not only halts Biden from moving forward with his unlawful overreach, but it also commands the judicious review we sought. The president will not impose medical procedures on the American people without the checks and balances afforded by the Constitution,” added Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, a Republican and one of the petitioners.
The appeals court panel consisted of Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan, a Trump nominee; Judge Edith Jones, a Reagan nominee; and Judge Kurt Engelhardt, a George W. Bush nominee.
The Biden administration was ordered to file a response to the petitioners’ motion for a permanent injunction by 5 p.m. on Monday and file a reply to other petitioner court documents by 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
HD Editor’s Note: Why Is This News Biblically Relevant?
Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council, in his article, “Vaccine Mandate Sticks It to Freedom,” wrote:
For a president who pledged to bring unity to the country, this order — “get the shots or lose your job” — will only bring more of the same: division and distrust. And, in an irony that even the liberal media can’t ignore, his heavy-handed approach will almost certainly turn more people against the very vaccine he claims to promote! But unfortunately, Biden, who was an honors student at the Obama School of Mandates, never learned that the more control government exerts, the more resistance they create.
[Many States understand] this road [of vaccine mandates] will lead to an endless string of intrusive dictates that will have far-reaching consequences for civil liberties, conscience rights, religious freedom, human dignity, parental rights, and more.
Nothing about these unilateral actions has anything to do with the actual facts. Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, argued on “Washington Watch,” that this isn’t about “following the science.” It’s about following “the dictatorial whims of whoever is talking to President Biden. If we were following the science,” she said, “we would have open discussion. We would have all of the evidence put out in front of people so that they can make the decision. We would stop trying to obstruct, forbid, ban, intimidate people from getting early treatment for COVID. We would be getting some of our facts straight.” There’s plenty of evidence, Orient pointed out, “to show that people have recovered from the illness, have a robust immunity, at least as good as some of the vaccines.” And yet, there’s no accommodation for early treatment and no acknowledgement of natural immunity. It is, as so many experts have agreed, “about politics” — nothing more.
Individuals and their doctors should be making health care decisions, she argued, not the government. It may be easier to institutionalize one side’s opinion — “But you know what? We call that communism… We are a nation of freedom, free people, and free choice… [The Left] wants power and control.” And yet, as long as these troubling questions go unanswered, Americans have a responsibility to draw a bright red line and resist — otherwise, it will only be the beginning of the end of our rights. As a nation, we must decide: do we want to accept this soft despotism? Or will we work for freedom?
Many also who have read the Bible and what it says about future events, state that vaccine mandates have become jaw-droppingly similar to what we read in Revelation 13 regarding the “mark of the beast.”
In this chapter, the Bible speaks of a coming global leader who will mandate a “mark” on the right hand or on the forehead. Without this “mark”, people will be restricted from being able to buy or sell.
It is very important to state here, that we do not believe the vaccine to be this mark for a myriad of reasons, which the Bible makes clear. However, it does seem undeniable that what we are currently witnessing is being used to desensitize people to such Government overreach and is a harbinger of things the Bible says will come.
As Terry James explains, “If you know Jesus Christ for salvation, according to Romans 10:9-10, you will never have to worry about taking Antichrist’s mark. The current vaccinations for COVID, or for any other disease, is not that prophesied mark. It will come on the scene during the Tribulation, after the Rapture of the Church.“
All these things show clearly the stage is being set and Jesus is coming very soon.
Luke 21:25 KJV – “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.”
