Appeals court halts Biden’s vaccine mandate

A federal appeals court in New Orleans has halted the Biden administration’s vaccine or testing requirement for private businesses, delivering another political setback to one of the White House’s signature public health policies.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, helmed by a judge appointed by President Ronald Reagan and two others appointed by President Donald Trump, issued the ruling Friday after temporarily halting the mandate last weekend in response to lawsuits filed by Republicanaligned businesses and legal groups.

Calling the requirement a “mandate,” the court said the rule “grossly exceeds OSHA’s statutory authority,” according to the opinion, written by Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt, and joined by Judges Edith H. Jones and Stuart Kyle Duncan.

“Rather than a delicately handled scalpel, the Mandate is a one-size fits-all sledgehammer that makes hardly any attempt to account for differences in workplaces (and workers) that have more than a little bearing on workers’ varying degrees of susceptibility to the supposedly ‘grave danger’ the Mandate purports to address,” they wrote.

They said they believed the ruling imposed a financial burden on businesses and potentially violated the commerce clause of the Constitution.

“The Mandate imposes a financial burden upon them by deputizing their participation in OSHA’s regulatory scheme, exposes them to severe financial risk if they refuse or fail to comply, and threatens to decimate their workforces (and business prospects) by forcing unwilling employees to take their shots, take their tests, or hit the road,” they wrote.

The New Orleans-based 5th Circuit is considered one of the country’s most conservative appeals courts.

The vaccine mandate released by the Biden administration last week says private employers with more than 100 employees must require staff to get vaccinated — or face weekly testing and mandatory masking. Workers who don’t work on site or with others can be exempted.

Although the testing option makes it softer than many requirements instituted by private companies, and state and municipal governments, it has faced strong blowback from conservative groups, businesses and mostly Republican officials.

The court halted the policy, scheduled to take effect Jan. 4, and ordered OSHA not to take further steps to implement or enforce the mandate.