States Launch Lawsuit to Protect Children and Teachers from Biden's Vaccine Mandate

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry (R) is heading a multi-state lawsuit aimed to protect children and teachers from President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate, filing the lawsuit Tuesday in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.

This specific lawsuit targets both Biden’s requirements on masking toddlers and mandating coronavirus shots for staff and volunteers of Head Start Programs.

“Like all of his other unlawful attempts to impose medical decisions on Americans, Biden’s overreaching orders to mask two-year-olds and force vaccinate teachers in our underserved communities will cost jobs and impede child development,” Landry said in a statement.

“If enacted, Biden’s authoritarianism will cut funding, programs, and childcare that working families, single mothers, and elderly raising grandchildren rely on desperately,” he continued.

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the Covid-19 response and the vaccination program at the White House on August 23, 2021, in Washington, DC. (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

“Our Nation’s children have faced enough setbacks and difficulties during the last two years; they cannot afford another government attack on their development,” Landry added, touting his office’s “great success in blocking Biden’s mandates on many hard-working Americans.”

“And we will work tirelessly to achieve the same victories for toddlers and teachers,” he added.

“The Biden Administration has quadrupled down on its lawless mandates. Facing a barrage of court orders enjoining its first three vaccine mandates, the Administration has not begun to rethink its ‘sledgehammer’ approach,” the complaint reads, detailing the role of the Head Start Program, which provides education services for low-income families of preschool-age children. 

On November 30, 2021, the complaint continues, HHS published an “interim final rule requiring (1) vaccination of Head Start staff, volunteers, and anyone else who comes in contact with Head Start children and (2) masking of all Head Start children two years or older and all adults.”

The vaccine made specifically “demands that a wide range of Head Start personnel—all staff, all contractors who come into contact with or provide direct services to children and families, and all volunteers in classrooms or working directly with children—submit to full Covid vaccination,” and it requires toddlers over the age of two to wear a mask in most settings. The mask mandate is enforceable immediately, and the vaccine requirement is enforceable January 31, 2022. As such the Office of Head Start is urging staff and volunteers to get their first shot by early January. 

A child with his mask lowered eats lunch at socially distanced tables in the cafeteria of Medora Elementary School on March 17, 2021, in Louisville, Kentucky.  (Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images)

The attorneys general from several other states, including Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Wyoming, and West Virginia, are joining Louisiana in this lawsuit.

The case is Louisiana v. Becerra, No. 3:21-cv-04370 in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.

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