The Heritage Foundation is suing the Biden administration to
stop its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for private employers, calling
the requirement a “gross abuse of power.”
“The mandate clearly encroaches on the police power of states
expressly reserved by the 10th Amendment [to the Constitution],”
argues the complaint filed Monday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the D.C. Circuit. The lawsuit adds: “It also exceeds the federal
government’s authority under the Commerce Clause.”
Heritage Foundation President Kay C. James and the think tank’s
incoming president, Kevin Roberts, who
takes office Wednesday, both issued statements on the
lawsuit.
“Dr. Roberts and I, along with the Board of Trustees,
unanimously agreed The Heritage Foundation has a vital role to play
in the courts to protect and secure the freedom of all Americans to
make medical decisions for themselves,” James
said, adding:
To all of our members, to the
conservative movement, and to Americans concerned by this
unacceptable overreach by President [Joe] Biden and his
administration, I say this—Heritage’s leadership is united behind
this lawsuit, and we are going to fight tooth-and-nail and send the
message that our freedoms are not up for debate.
Heritage’s court action became one of the latest
challenges to the vaccine mandate, which imposes a
Jan. 4. deadline for businesses and other organizations that
employ 100 or more to require their employees either to be fully
vaccinated or produce the results of weekly tests for the
coronavirus. Heritage has about 270 employees.
The American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative legal
group, filed the lawsuit on behalf of Heritage, which is the parent
organization of The Daily Signal.
“The Heritage Foundation has not historically filed lawsuits,”
Roberts said in his own written statement. “That we are doing so
now should make clear to any observer that we view this mandate as
a deadly serious threat to our individual liberty and the values
that make America great. Under my predecessors, The Heritage
Foundation has stood rock-solid in defense of liberty, freedom, and
opportunity for all, and it will continue to do so under my
leadership.”
Roberts continued:
I wish this lawsuit were unnecessary. I wish we had an
administration in the White House that respected the Constitution
and the rule of law.
From the unprecedented border crisis, to the disastrous
Afghanistan withdrawal, to now this unlawful COVID vaccine mandate,
it is irrevocably clear that this administration will stop at
nothing—even harming Americans and our national interests—in
pursuit of the most radical policy agenda in American history. Rest
assured, we at Heritage are only just beginning to fight back.
…
I am so thrilled to be leading this incredible organization at
this pivotal time in our nation’s history, and to be engaged in the
trenches on the most important fights we’ve seen in a
generation.
On Sept.9, Biden authorized the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration to require employers with 100 or more workers to
make sure those workers either are fully vaccinated or provide
weekly test results showing that they don’t have
COVID-19.
“We’re going to protect vaccinated workers from unvaccinated
co-workers,” Biden said in announcing the mandate.
The Biden administration contends that the mandate is necessary
because too many Americans refuse to get vaccinated and that OSHA
has the statutory authority to impose the mandate.
During remarks Monday at the White House about the
omicron variant of COVID-19, Biden said the United States is
doing its part to get its citizens vaccinated, and added: “We can’t
let up until the world is vaccinated.”
The Heritage Foundation joins other employers as well as state
attorneys general in filing lawsuits
challenging the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s
emergency rule implementing the mandate.
“The ACLJ is honored to serve as counsel for The Heritage
Foundation,” said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American
Center for Law and Justice, in a written statement. “This case
focuses on the serious constitutional issues raised by the Biden
administration’s employer mandate.”
Implementing the
mandate, which would cover at least 84.2 million Americans
working for about 164,000 different businesses and other
organizations, could be difficult and might rely on employees’
snitching on bosses and colleagues.
The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals enjoined
the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate on Nov. 6, citing “grave
statutory and constitutional issues.”
The appeals court affirmed its previous ruling, writing that
Biden’s vaccine mandate is “staggeringly overbroad” and likely
“violates the constitutional structure that safeguards our
collective liberty.”
The Biden administration announced it would not enforce the
mandate while the litigation is pending.
Monday also marked another setback for the Biden administration
when a federal court in Missouri
halted the federal requirement for health care workers to be
vaccinated in 10 states: Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri,
Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, and
Wyoming.
The requirement, which came under a rule from the Department of
Health and Human Services earlier this year, is separate from
OSHA’s emergency regulation.
In yet another separate regulation, the Biden administration’s
Office of Personnel Management
announced that it would delay penalties against federal
employees who were not vaccinated by a Nov. 22 deadline.
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