Eighteen more states, some with Department of Energy nuclear cleanup sites, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, filed legal briefs this week supporting a U.S. District Court judge’s ruling that blocked President Joe Biden from requiring most federal contractor employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Amicus curiae or “friend of the court” briefs were filed Tuesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit by the Chamber as well as Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas.
Kentucky is home to the Office of Environmental Management’s Paducah Site. Ohio has the Portsmouth Site and Tennessee has the Oak Ridge Site—all three sites were once home to gaseous diffusion plants used to enrich uranium.
The 11th Circuit has scheduled April 8 oral arguments in the case brought by Associated Builders and Contractors along with the states of Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia.
U.S. District Court Judge Stan Baker in Southern Georgia ruled in December the administration exceeded its authority by using the Procurement Act to mandate employee vaccination against the illness that has claimed more than 900,000 American lives.
The additional states said the appeals court should affirm the district court’s decision to preliminarily enjoin enforcement of the vaccination policy. The states’ amicus filing claims the feds have failed to show where COVID-19 related absenteeism resulted in increased project costs or delays. “And the government overstates the reduction in workplace transmission that will be caused by vaccination, especially in light of evidence that the vaccine is not effective in preventing transmission of the Omicron variant.”
“The Chamber and its members have contributed significantly to fighting COVID-19,” according to its brief. “Member businesses have undertaken efforts to make COVID-19 vaccines available” and encouraged employees to take the shot. The Chamber of Commerce contends, however, the Biden administration’s September executive order and resulting federal agency guidance exceeds the “limited scope” of the Procurement Act. The act does not enable a president to do anything he “considers necessary” to improve government procurement, the Chamber said.
“But rather than acting on express congressional authorization, the President uses authority under the Procurement Act as a foot in the door to make a sweeping policy choice,” the Chamber said.
