Legal arguments have grown from a challenge to the authority Biden invoked in ordering the vaccination policy into a broader dispute over the limits of a President’s powers to set federal workplace policies. Image: Antwon McMullen/Shutterstock.com
This month marks a full year since a federal judge issued an injunction against the Biden administration’s Coronavirus vaccination mandate for federal employees but the issue is still unresolved—and may remain so for some time.
A federal judge in Texas enjoined the mandate last January just as agencies were about to begin disciplinary actions, potentially to include firing, against employees who were unvaccinated and who didn’t have a granted or pending request for an exception for either medical or religious reasons. The administration had issued that mandate several months earlier along with several others.
Of the other mandates, several have been either barred by courts or—in the case of the one for military personnel—by a change in law. However, the dispute over the federal employee mandate has continued to churn through the legal system, with the injunction remaining in effect through that process.
The steps have included a request that the judge reconsider the case, an emergency appeal to the Fifth Circuit federal appeals court that upheld the injunction, a regular appeal to a three-judge panel of that court which ordered lifting the injunction, and then an appeal to the full appeals court which was granted and oral arguments held last September.
There is no set timeframe for that decision, nor has there been an indication of what direction the administration would take. But there has been a widespread view—among federal employee organizations and law firms specializing in federal workplace law — that whatever the ruling, the case ultimately could be pushed to the U.S. Supreme Court for consideration.
One reason is that the legal arguments have grown from a challenge to the authority Biden invoked in ordering the vaccination policy into a broader dispute over the limits of a President’s powers to set federal workplace policies in general. Also at issue is a related dispute over to what extent challenges to federal workplace policies must first go through civil service channels before being taken into court.
Because the suit challenges Biden’s order, the injunction does not apply to agencies—most notably the VA—that had issued vaccination mandates for their own employees prior to Biden’s order. The VA is continuing to enforce its policy and has fired some employees, mostly on charges of not following stricter safety protocols required in some settings for those who are not vaccinated.
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