A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled 2-1 to uphold President Joe Biden's requirement that all federal employees be vaccinated against Covid-19. In doing so, the New Orleans court overturned a lower court decision from a US District Judge in Texas.
Charles "Rocky" Rhodes, a law professor at the South Texas College of Law in Houston says this is actually a narrow ruling. It states that since this is a complaint about conditions of employment, workers who do not want to be vaccinated now have to go through an administrative process.
"They are not actually upholding President Biden's mandate per se, they're just saying judges cannot consider this in a federal lawsuit," Rhodes said. "Of course, that has the effect, for now at least, of reinstating President Biden's vaccine mandate for federal employees."
In January, Judge Jeffrey Brown, a Trump appointee from the Southern District of Texas put a nationwide halt to the mandate. At the time, UT law professor Steve Vladeck tweeted: "I’m sorry, but this is just insane. The federal government lacks the power to require its *own* employees to be vaccinated? So the Reagan Administration blood test requirement is also unlawful? I don’t even know what to say anymore."
Rhodes says aside from Brown's ruling, other judges in the country found that President Biden was within his authority to create this vaccine mandate.
"As the head of the federal government, just like your employer, if you are working for a company and they decide they're going to have a vaccine mandate, that company has the authority to do that," Rhodes said. "So does President Biden for the federal government."
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