A group of federal employees suing the Biden administration over its vaccine mandates has filed a new lawsuit in federal court that broadens the scope of its arguments.
Thirty-nine unnamed federal workers across the government at the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security, Justice, State, and Treasury, as well as the CIA, sued Biden administration Cabinet officials in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida on Friday, according to a copy of the lawsuit first obtained by the Washington Examiner.
“I believe that our lawsuit is based on sound research and how the federal employment discrimination law has been developed over the past four decades,” said Carol Thompson, an attorney with the Federal Practice Group in Washington, one of the two firms involved. “I do also see that this may be something that doesn’t end at the federal district court level, given that there are different federal district courts coming out in different ways. I perceive it as being an issue that ultimately is possibly going to be seen by the Supreme Court, potentially.”
The Supreme Court has already sided against the Biden administration once, blocking a mandate on large private companies Tuesday, while letting stand a separate rule that requires vaccines for healthcare workers at facilities that received federal funding.
Federal judges for the District of Columbia in November denied halting the separate mandates for federal workers and government contractors, one indication that an earlier suit filed by the Federal Practice Group in the District of Columbia could face a similar initial ruling.
Following Biden’s September 2021 decree that federal workers and government contractors would have to be fully vaccinated by Nov. 22, 2021, or face termination, nearly 2,000 federal workers and government contractors reached out seeking legal representation, Thompson said. Only 50 were represented in a lawsuit that the Federal Practice Group filed in a separate lawsuit in October because most did not want their names made public and others were unable to be retained by the law firm in time.
The new suit was filed in the central Florida court because a number of the anonymous federal workers represented in the latest suit reside there.
TEXAS SYNAGOGUE TERRORIST LIKELY DIDN’T REQUIRE VISA TO ENTER U.S., AVOIDING VETTING
This second complaint makes new arguments that the Biden administration broke the law with its vaccine mandate.
First, the Administrative Procedure Act permits the federal district court to review executive orders such as the ones Biden issued last year requiring federal employees to be fully vaccinated by Nov. 22 or face termination.
“The federal district courts can review the mandates to determine if they are critical, arbitrary, and capricious, which essentially means: Are these mandates reasonably tied to any facts?” Thompson said.
Biden stated at the time of the orders that the mandates were being imposed because they would prevent the spread of the coronavirus by unvaccinated people. However, Thompson said studies, including one by the Genome Center at the University of California, Davis, found that both vaccinated and unvaccinated people spread the virus, invalidating the basis of the mandate.
Second, the statutes that Biden cited as his authority for issuing the mandate were taken out of context, the lawsuit claims.
“The statutes allow the president to make rules governing the behavior of government employees, or how the accession process for potential federal employee applicants is to be undertaken,” said Thompson. “None of them regard mandates for vaccines or medical requirements. So our argument is that the president does not have the statutory authority to be able to issue these mandates.”
A third new argument covers possible constitutional violations.
“When it comes to injury, if there’s some sort of constitutional violation or a violation of a constitutional right, that in of itself is irreparable injury,” said Thompson. “You have a constitutional right to bodily integrity, to not have the government tell you technically that you have to receive unwanted medical treatment. You also have a constitutional right to occupational liberty. Essentially, the government can’t substantially or permanently interfere with your ability to engage in your chosen profession.”
If the federal judge orders a preliminary injunction, banning the Biden administration from imposing the mandate to affected workers, it could be imposed for just the named plaintiffs or nationwide.
Some federal agencies have begun convening review boards to look over each employee’s requested exemption to getting the vaccine. Two anonymous U.S. Customs and Border Protection employees at headquarters confirmed the agency has begun reviewing the requests, but that it has not announced decisions to individuals.
Some agencies have begun putting employees on leave without pay, Thompson said, without disclosing the specific agencies.
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The first lawsuit filed in federal court three months ago states that the Biden administration did not allow for a case-by-case review to determine if an unvaccinated employee or contractor posed a direct threat to the workforce; it required that the government itself unlawfully inquire about each person’s medical history, it moved to fire employees on a perceived disability (which is illegal), it does not take into consideration the natural immunity that unvaccinated federal employees may have gotten through infection, and it goes against the informed consent principles of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which states that all U.S. citizens have the right to accept or refuse medicines authorized under “emergency use” without having to worry about losing their jobs.
The Biden administration has until Friday to respond to the initial lawsuit in Washington, D.C., and Thompson expects that they will make a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. Her team plans to oppose it.
Because federal courts have issued different conclusions in initial filings, Thompson said the lawsuit could make its way to the Supreme Court.
