Federal Appeals Court Deals Another Blow to Biden Admin’s Private Business Vaccine Mandate By Reaffirming Temporary Halt

Following a lawsuit, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit put a temporary halt on the Biden administration’s private business vaccine mandate last Saturday.

On Monday, the Biden administration had asked the court to lift the pause, warning that delaying implementation “would likely cost dozens or even hundreds of lives per day” as the virus spreads.

In an opinion issued yesterday, the appelette court reaffirmed their decision, dealing another blow to the mandate, calling the requirements “fatally flawed” and “staggeringly overbroad,” arguing that the requirements likely exceed the authority of the federal government and raise “serious constitutional concerns.”

The White House has told businesses to press ahead with implementing the requirements despite the ruling.

The mandate gives companies with 100 or more employees until Jan. 4 to ensure their staff has received the shots required for full vaccination.

After that date, unvaccinated employees must submit negative Covid tests weekly to enter the workplace and they must start wearing masks indoors at the workplace starting Dec. 5.

The lawsuit is one of over two dozen as the Biden administration faces a flurry of lawsuits seeking to overturn the mandates.

Republican attorneys general in at least 26 states have challenged the requirements in five federal appellate courts and the cases will be consolidated in a single court through random selection among the jurisdictions where lawsuits have been filed.

Earlier this week, the Justice Department said that it expects the random selection to take place on Tuesday at the earliest.

A professor of law at Georgetown University, David Vladeck, told CNBC that there’s a “high probability” the case will ultimately end up in the Supreme Court, where there’s a conservative majority, although that is no guarantee, given the recent history, that the mandate will be halted.

Even if it is, the Biden administration has already shown a propensity to ignoring the court’s ruling, as they have dragged their feet when it comes to the reinstatement of the “Remain in Mexico” policy that was ruled on by the high court.

“There are justices on the court who want to rein in the administrative state and this is a case in which those concerns are likely to come to the fore,” Vladeck told CNBC on Monday.