A U.S. federal appeals court Saturday halted a mandate from the administration of President Joe Biden requiring workers at U.S. companies with at least 100 employees be vaccinated against COVID-19 or get weekly tests, Reuters reported.
According to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruling, there are “grave statutory and constitutional” issues with the rule.
The two-page order directs the administration to respond to the request for a permanent injunction against the rule by 5 p.m. Monday.
Previously, the mandate was expected to go into effect on January 4. It applies to 84.2 million workers at 1.9 million private-sector employers, according to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
Related
Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda said the Labor Department was “confident in its legal authority” to issue the mandate. It would be enforced by OSHA.
“The Occupational Safety and Health Act explicitly gives OSHA the authority to act quickly in an emergency where the agency finds that workers are subjected to a grave danger and a new standard is necessary to protect them,” she said. “We are fully prepared to defend this standard in court.”
When Biden announced the rule, it was immediately met with resistance from Republican governors, along with calls for legal action. Multiple Republican-led states did file legal challenges to the rule, including Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Utah.
Related
