A federal appeals court has halted President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for larger businesses, marking a temporary victory for the Right’s resistance to the measure.
A three-judge panel issued the ruling Saturday, saying petitioners offered significant cause to believe there are “grave statutory and constitutional issues” with the federal order.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who supported the lawsuit, announced an emergency hearing will take place “soon,” adding in a statement on Twitter that “we will have our day in court to strike down Biden’s unconstitutional abuse of authority.”
FLURRY OF LAWSUITS TO GREET BIDEN ADMINISTRATION’S VACCINE MANDATE
BREAKING: The Federal Court of Appeals just issued a temporary halt to Biden’s vaccine mandate.
Emergency hearings will take place soon.
We will have our day in court to strike down Biden’s unconstitutional abuse of authority. pic.twitter.com/8utmU05vw3
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) November 6, 2021
The temporary halt was praised by those on the Right, with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton tweeting, “Yesterday, I sued the Biden Admin over its unlawful OSHA vax mandate. WE WON.”
But White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration is confident the mandate will hold legal weight in court.
“We are very confident that it can,” Jean-Pierre said at a Friday press briefing. “As for the legal side of this, let me be crystal clear to avoid what appears to be possible misinformation or disinformation around the emergency temporary standard being a vaccine mandate. That would be, on its face, incorrect as has been explicit for months. It is a standard for a safe workplace to either comply with weekly testing or to be vaccinated.”
Just hours after the White House issued its new vaccine mandate this week, more than two dozen Republican-led states announced lawsuits challenging the measure.
The Biden administration announced Thursday it was setting a deadline of Jan. 4 for large companies, defined as those with more than 100 employees, to start requiring vaccination against COVID-19 or enforce weekly testing.
The law was intended to be enforced by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a move that leaves the judicial branch to determine whether it stands as an unconstitutional mandate or an enforceable component of safety standards in large workplaces.
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The court gave the U.S. government until 5 p.m. Monday to respond to the stay.
