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Federal Contractor Vaccine Mandate Halted By Federal Judge


On Tuesday, a Federal Judge in Kentucky issued a preliminary injunction blocking the enforcement of the federal contractor vaccine mandate that had previously been issued by the President Joe Biden administration.

In Tuesday’s opinion, the Judge noted that the case was not about whether vaccines are effective or whether a government, in certain instances, can require citizens to get vaccines.  Rather, the Judge stated that he did not believe the Biden administration had the authority to impose a vaccine mandate on the employees of federal contractors.  Consequently, the injunction was issued to halt enforcement of this mandate for federal contractors in Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee.

This is of course another rebuke of the recent vaccine mandates issued by the Biden administration (or ordered by the Biden administration via the Labor Department) by courts.  Following the Fifth Circuit’s injunction (and the cases being consolidated into the Sixth Circuit) to block enforcement of vaccine mandates for large scale employers, this has not been a good couple of weeks for the Biden administration in regard to vaccine mandates.

As readers might recall, after the Fifth Circuit issued a preliminary injunction a few weeks ago, the Biden administration instructed employers to effectively ignore the injunction and move forward with requiring vaccines among employees.  That was a…bold idea, to say the least.  As always, this blog does not serve as legal advice, but willfully and deliberately ignoring an injunction is not what I would call the best idea. But hey, that is just me talking as an attorney that does not want to go before a Federal Judge to explain why I intentionally ignored an injunction.

Will the Biden administration issue the same instructions to federal contractors following this week’s injunction?  I would be curious to see what happens.


For additional information:  https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article256230412.html

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