During a press conference in early September, President Joe Biden announced his plan to forcibly vaccinate a massive portion of the American workforce. He signed executive orders that forced federal employees and contractors to be vaccinated. He then announced his plan to utilize the regulatory bureaucratic power of OSHA to require employers with a certain amount of employees to vaccinate their workers.
Last week, OSHA published its emergency temporary standard (ETS). It requires companies with more than 100 employees to mandate their workers get fully vaccinated or test negative for COVID every week. The deadline for compliance is January 4, but many companies such as Union Pacific, Lockheed Martin, and even Texas A&M have already complied to save their federal contracts valued in the billions.
In response to the ETS, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is spearheading a petition in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, flanked by numerous states and companies that reject the mandate. The petition claims that Biden’s mandate violates multiple statutory and constitutional principles.
“The Biden administration’s new vaccine mandate on private businesses is a breathtaking abuse of federal power,” said Attorney General Paxton.
OSHA has only limited power and specific responsibilities. This latest move goes way outside those bounds. This “standard” is flatly unconstitutional. Bottom line: Biden’s new mandate is bad policy and bad law, and I’m asking the Court to strike it down.
Following the petition, Paxton has said he will file a motion to stay the ETS to protect millions of Americans and Texans from losing their jobs.
This lawsuit follows another suit filed by Paxton last week against the Biden administration’s plans to require employees of businesses that have contracts with the federal government to receive a COVID vaccine.
