Attorneys General from 7 States File Lawsuit Challenging Biden's Vaccine Mandate

Tennessee’s Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III announced Friday that a coalition of seven attorneys general has filed a lawsuit against “the Biden Administration’s vaccine mandate for private sector employees.”

Slatery III, along with attorneys general from Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Ohio, Oklahoma, and West Virginia, filed the petition in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, according to a release from Slatery’s office. 

And here’s the lawsuit: AG Slatery
Challenges @POTUS #VaccineMandates for Private Sector Employees: https://t.co/x4vqbVApRa

— TN Attorney General (@TNattygen) November 5, 2021

“The coalition asks the court to review the emergency temporary standard issued by the Biden Administration’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which requires the vaccination of tens of millions of citizens,” the release states. 

“As we anticipated, the mandate asserts an unprecedented expansion of emergency regulatory powers by a federal agency,” Slatery III is quoted as saying in the release. “Its scope and breadth is only exceeded by its length (about 500 pages). It also fails to consider the many steps already taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by individuals, employers and our state.”

The release states that Congress delegated power to issue temporary emergency standards to OSHA “for the express purpose of protecting employees from grave dangers posed by exposure to substances like physically harmful chemicals or asbestos encountered at work.” The release goes on to state, “That authority does not extend to risks that are equally prevalent at work and in society at large.”

The lawsuit in part reads:

Pursuant to Fed. R. App. 15, section 6(f) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, 29 U.S.C. § 655(f), and the Administrative Procedure Act, 2 5 U.S.C. §§ 551–706, the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the States of Idaho, Kansas, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and West Virginia (the “Petitioner States”) hereby petition the Court for review of the emergency temporary standard entitled “COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing; Emergency Temporary Standard” issued by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, published in the Federal Register on November 5, 2021 at Volume 86, pages 61402 through 61555, and the accompanying administrative record.

[…]

On this date, Petitioner States are also filing a motion to stay the emergency temporary standard pending the Court’s review pursuant to Fed. R. App. 18. The States respectfully request a ruling on that motion for a stay pending final judgment by no later than November 12, 2021. This will allow the States to seek immediate relief at the Supreme Court before the compliance dates should this Court deny relief.

On Saturday, “the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Court issued a temporary stay blocking the” Biden administration’s “vaccine mandate for businesses with 100 employees or more,” Breitbart News reported.

The case is Commonwealth of Kentucky v. OSHA, No. 21-4031 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

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