President Joe Biden’s effort to mandate for federal employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine has seen significant opposition, as many Republican-dominated states blocked it.
A Georgia judge blocked this move for his state.
“As of today, President Biden’s three major vaccine mandates have been stopped by federal courts,” Gov. Henry McMaster wrote on Twitter. “I promised I would fight these unconstitutional mandates, I have, and we are winning.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the Justice Department will continue defending the mandate.
“The reason that we proposed these requirements is that we know they work, and we are confident in our ability, legally, to make these happen across the country,” Psaki said at a briefing.
In Augusta, Georgia, U.S. District Court Judge R. Stan Baker issued a stay to bar enforcement of the mandate nationwide. Former President Donald Trump appointed Baker to the position.
“The court acknowledges the tragic toll that the (coronavirus) pandemic has wrought throughout the nation and the globe,” the judge wrote to MSN News. “However, even in times of crisis this court must preserve the rule of law and ensure that all branches of government act within the bounds of their constitutionally granted authorities.”
The order came in response to a lawsuit from several contractors and seven states: Alabama, Georgia, Kansas, South Carolina, Utah, Idaho and West Virginia.
“I’ve heard from federal contractors and their employees across the state who were worried they’d be forced to get a vaccine they don’t want,” Attorney General Austin Knudsen said in a statement. “Just because a company happens to contract with the federal government does not mean its workers lose their rights. The vaccine mandates are a gross abuse of power — and now three of them are blocked in Montana. I’ll continue to fight President Biden’s unlawful mandates and protect Montanans’ rights.”
A federal judge in Kentucky also had issued a preliminary injunction against the mandate last week, but it applied only to contractors in Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee since they had sued together.
