A federal appeals court reversed a decision blocking the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for civilian federal workers.
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The New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday 2-1 that Jeffrey Brown, a federal judge in Texas and an appointee of President Donald Trump who blocked the mandate in January, did not have the jurisdiction to do so. The case that Brown ruled on was initiated in December by Feds for Medical Freedom, a 6,000-member organization that challenged the mandate on the grounds that it exceeds the president’s authority.
The question in the case pertained to the reach of the Civil Service Reform Act, a 1978 law meant to streamline the process of settling workplace disputes brought by federal workers. Federal employees sought relief from disciplinary action, arguing that the act is meant to protect them from unfair practices.
Thursday’s opinion was authored by Judge Carl Stewart, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, who was joined by Judge James Stewart, another Clinton appointee. The minority dissenter was President George W. Bush appointee Judge Rhesa Hawkins Barksdale.
“We conclude that the CSRA precluded the district court’s jurisdiction,” the Clinton appointees wrote. “Accordingly, the plaintiffs’ claim for preliminary injunctive relief fails because they have not shown a substantial likelihood of success on the merits.”
President Joe Biden announced the mandate in September, ordering that all executive branch agency employees, roughly 3.5 million people, get vaccinated. Around that same time, he issued a vaccine mandate for private sector workers as well, which was eventually blocked by the Supreme Court.
However, the court allowed a more modest vaccine mandate to stand. That mandate required all healthcare workers whose employers receive funding from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to get vaccinated, without exemptions.
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Most federal workers had already complied with the vaccine mandate well before Brown’s decision in January. The White House said in November that about 90% of workers had at least commenced the vaccination process or applied for a religious exemption as allowed by the mandate.
