Alabama governor's exec order resist Biden's vaccine mandate
Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama issued an executive order this week directing state agencies to not cooperate, whenever possible, with federal vaccine mandates, describing the Biden administration’s actions as an “overreach.”
The governor’s directive comes as some Republican governors across the country, playing to their conservative bases, have taken actions aimed at countering President Joe Biden’s attempt to raise the country’s overall vaccination rate through expansive mandates.
The White House has issued an order requiring all federal employees, workers for federal contractors and people who work for health-care companies receiving Medicare and Medicaid to be vaccinated. The administration also has plans to ask companies with more than 100 workers to adopt vaccine mandates or weekly testing.
The federal mandates, along with masks in schools, are unpopular among conservatives, many of whom see them as an infringement on personal freedoms, and Republican elected officials in some states have sought to capitalize on that sentiment.
“Alabamians are overwhelmingly opposed to these outrageous Biden mandates, and I stand with them,” Ivey said in a statement.
In Texas, the Republican governor, Greg Abbott, issued a broad executive order that bars virtually any coronavirus vaccine mandate in the state. And in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is seen as a possible GOP presidential contender, has adamantly opposed any measures that would require vaccines or masks, saying they infringe on personal liberties.
Ivey’s order says state agencies should prepare to assist with a lawsuit that the Alabama attorney general is expected to file challenging the federal mandate.
Legal experts say the federal government has broad authority to address the public health crisis created by the pandemic, and Biden has predicted that his health orders will survive legal challenges.
Beyond political symbolism, the impact of Ivey’s order is unclear. It directs state agencies not to punish businesses and people who do not comply with the federal vaccine mandate. It also states that if an agency is required to enforce the federal mandate, employees should inform those businesses or individuals that the state “does not approve, condone or otherwise endorse” such mandates.
“The federal government’s outrageous overreach has simply given us no other option but to begin taking action, which is why I am issuing this executive order,” Ivey said in a statement.
Ivey has walked a fine line on the issue of vaccinations. During the summer, she expressed frustration over unvaccinated people’s refusal to get a shot, saying that it was “time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks.”
“It’s the unvaccinated folks
that are letting us down,” she told reporters in July.
Still, Ivey said that she is “adamantly” opposed to issuing her own vaccine mandate in the state, adding that she believed the way to increase vaccination rates was through “persuasion.”