With the White House ending mandatory COVID-19 vaccination rules for most federal workers, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has postponed oral arguments on a case involving the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state.
The San Francisco-based court Tuesday told the parties, including DOE and hundreds of plaintiff government and contractor employees, to file briefs by May 12 on whether the litigation is now “moot” and no longer relevant.
“This case [David Donovan versus Brian Vance] is removed from the May 8, 2023, Seattle calendar, and is held in abeyance pending further order of this court,” according to a Tuesday order from the federal appeals court.
“No mandate shall issue, and this order does not constitute a dismissal or other ruling on the merits of this case,” at this time, the court went on to say.
The case brought by 310 Hanford workers was dismissed by a federal district court judge in Eastern Washington last spring. The federal judge said the case, filed by lawyers affiliated with the Silent Majority Foundation, was rife with procedural and factual flaws. The case, filed in November 2021, was eventually appealed to the Ninth Circuit.
The Biden administration announced in a Monday press release it is ending vaccination mandates for federal and contractor employees as well as international travelers and others.
“Since January 2021, COVID-19 deaths have declined by 95%, and hospitalizations are down nearly 91%,” according to the White House release. “Globally, COVID-19 deaths are at their lowest levels since the start of the pandemic” and about 270 million Americans took at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine.
DOE and its contractors doing business in the weapons complex, which already reported a COVID-19 inoculation rate well over 90%, had previously stopped questioning employees about their vaccination status.
Biden issued a pair of executive orders in September 2021 that gave rise to mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for most feds and contractors absent a valid medical or religious exemption. Like COVID-related masking and school closings, it proved to be a polarizing issue that resulted in much litigation.
Last November, the U.S. District Court in New Mexico declined to insert itself in arbitration cases brought by eight employees at the Los Alamos National Laboratory who challenged the vaccination policy of prime contractor Triad National Security. The court declined to intervene, saying the case was not ripe for court consideration until the arbitrator rules.
Last summer, 80 employees who challenged vaccination policy administered by Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, the prime for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, withdrew their case in a federal appeals court, after losing before a federal district judge.
