U.S. Appeals Court restrains Biden from imposing vaccine mandate on federal workers

U.S. appeals court on Wednesday upheld the restraint on President Joe Biden from imposing vaccine mandate on federal workers. Thus, the courts declined to restore vaccine mandate for federal workers, therefore, upholding a judgement of a federal district court that nullified the compulsory vaccine mandate imposed on citizens and residents in the U.S. The government would now have to proceed to Supreme Court on appeal.

National Daily gathered that the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a judgement voted 2-1 refusing to overturn a stay against the injunction issued by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas-Galveston division on January 21. The court rather ordered both parties to file arguments in March.

The 5th Circuit in its judgment in the suit – Feds for Medical Freedom et al. v. Joseph R. Biden et. al., withheld an explanation of its decision.

It was highlighted that Feds for Medical Freedom, a grassroots organization with about 6,000 members in the federal civil service, had filed a suit in December 2021 challenging the Biden administration and several federal agencies over restrictions in December 2021. Other defendants identified in the suit include a union representing employees in the Federal Protective Service and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, AFGE Local 918, and several other individuals and federal contractors.

The groups in their suit, are seeking to block two COVID vaccine mandates: one covering federal employees and the other for federal contractors.

In its initial ruling, The district court had in an initial judgement refrained from making pronouncement on the contractor aspect of the suit, since a Georgia court had already issued  a separate nationwide injunction on vaccine  mandate in December 2021.

The Biden administration had issued an executive order imposing vaccine mandate on federal workers on September 9, 2021. The order compelled an estimated 3.5 million federal workers to receive COVID vaccines by November 22, 2021 or face disciplinary action or termination. The executive order took away workers rights to consider the option to apply for a medical or religious exemption ion the court of law.

The U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown in a judgement nullified the executive order, declaring that the president and his administration do not have the authority to impose such a mandate.