Court Restores Biden Administration Healthcare Worker Vaccine Mandate In 26 States

A federal appeals court out of New Orleans effectively restored the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for healthcare workers in 26 states across the country. 

In late November, a federal judge in Louisiana blocked Biden’s vaccine mandate for health care workers, putting into place an injunction on the order across the country, The Daily Wire reported. 

The Wall Street Journal reported at the time: “The mandate, issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, required all workers at facilities participating in Medicare and Medicaid to get their first shot of the vaccine by Dec. 6 and to have both shots by Jan. 4. The facilities risked losing federal funding if they didn’t comply.” 

After the Louisiana judge halted the mandate for healthcare workers around the nation, the Biden administration went forward with an appeal, and “also asked the 5th Circuit to halt the injunction while the case plays out,” The Hill noted.

“The 5th Circuit granted the administration’s request in part by reducing the scope of nationwide injunction and applying it only to the 14 states that sued. Those states are Louisiana, Montana, Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio,” the outlet added. 

Along with an injunction by a judge out of Missouri, the requirement is halted in 24 states. 

As CNN reported: 

In its order Wednesday, the 5th Circuit hinted at the likelihood that the Supreme Court will ultimately have to resolve the legality of the health care worker mandate, calling it an “issue of great significance currently being litigated throughout the country.” 

“Its ultimate resolution will benefit from ‘the airing of competing view’ in our sister circuits,” the 5th Circuit said in its order, which was issued by a panel made up of two Democratic appointees and one Republican appointee.

The Hill reported, in its explanation for its decision, the 5th Circuit said the federal judge out of Louisiana had provided “little justification for issuing an injunction outside the 14 states that brought this suit.”

In November, Louisiana Western District U.S. Judge Terry Doughty wrote of the decision, stating, “If the separation of powers meant anything to the Constitutional framers, it meant that the three necessary ingredients to deprive a person of liberty or property – the power to make rules, to enforce them, and to judge their violations – could never fall into the same hands.”

Doughty added, “If the executive branch is allowed to usurp the power of the legislative branch to make laws, two of the three powers conferred by our Constitution would be in the same hands. If human nature and history teach anything, it is that civil liberties face grave risks when governments proclaim indefinite states of emergency.”  

“During a pandemic such as this one, it is even more important to safeguard the separation of powers set forth in our Constitution to avoid erosion of our liberties. Because the Plaintiff States have satisfied all four elements required for a preliminary injunction to issue, this Court has determined that a preliminary injunction should issue against the Government Defendants,” Doughty continued. “This matter will ultimately be decided by a higher court than this one. However, it is important to preserve the status quo in this case. The liberty interests of the unvaccinated requires nothing less.”

Some hospital systems have begun to walk back their COVID-19 staff vaccine mandates due to the recent court decisions.

Concerns over losing staff and the rising price of labor have affected hospitals. Several large hospital groups including HCA Healthcare Inc., Tenet Healthcare Corp., as well as nonprofits such as AdventHealth and the Cleveland Clinic recently got rid of their mandates.  

As courts continue to play out legal challenges regarding mandates, healthcare systems will likely continue to adapt to the ever-changing landscape of mandates and government actions. 

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