Governors To State Attorney Generals Plan To Challenge President Joe Biden's COVID-19 Vaccination Mandate

President Joe Biden inspects a COVID-19 vaccination center. (Wikimedia Commons/Official White House Photo)

JAKARTA - Three state governors are expected to demand a halt to the terms of President Biden's Administration, asking nearly 2 million employers to test or vaccinate their workers for COVID-19, saying it tramples on civil liberties.

After Democratic President Biden called for the rules from January 4, Florida's Republican Governor Ron DeSantis said he would join the governors of Georgia and Alabama and private plaintiffs in filing the lawsuit.

"The federal government cannot simply impose medical policies unilaterally under the guise of workplace regulations," DeSantis said at a news conference.

Republican governors in Indiana, Iowa and Nebraska also vowed to challenge the move in court.

The regulations are enforced as rarely used emergency rules from OSHA, or the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the federal workplace regulator.

"President Biden just announced his plans to use OSHA to mandate vaccines on private businesses," Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, wrote on Twitter on Thursday.

"I am announcing my plans to sue him after this illegal and unconstitutional ordinance was added to the Federal Register," he continued.

Texas is one of the Republican-led states that have issued executive orders or enacted laws banning COVID-19 vaccine mandates or preventing employers from seeking employee vaccination status.

OSHA says the rules take precedence over conflicting state laws. This rule will go into effect on Friday, when it will be published in the federal register.

At least two lawsuits were filed against the mandate on Thursday, one by Phillips Manufacturing & Tower and Sixarp LLC and the other by Bentkey Services LLC, which owns The Daily Wire, a conservative media firm. Both were filed at the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

Responding to opponents of the rule, a senior administration official said OSHA clearly has the authority to act to protect workers from health and safety hazards. COVID-19 has killed more than 745,000 people in the United States.

Earlier, President Biden said in September, patience was running low with 30 percent of Americans remaining reluctant to be vaccinated, with most of them being treated at home during the latest wave of COVID-19 infections.

Vaccine policies are being used by private businesses and local governments to raise COVID-19 vaccination rates, with the general courts backing it because states usually have the power to regulate health care within their borders.

The various opponents had signaled their intention to sue. Previous use of OSHA emergency rules has a history of being blocked in court. Even if the mandate is enforced by the courts, some states may still not enforce the rule.

OSHA applies to private workplaces in 29 states. The remaining states, including Indiana and Iowa, have their own state-run OSHA which are required to adopt federal rules.

To note, OSHA issued similar COVID-19 rules for healthcare settings in June. In October, the federal agency threatened to take over state-run OSHA agencies in Arizona, South Carolina and Utah for failing to adopt it. Arizona and South Carolina have since said they have started the process of adopting the rules. Officials in Utah did not respond to requests for comment.