DOJ asks federal appeals court to lift temporary order blocking Covid-19 vaccine mandate

[FBaggins]

The Department of Justice argued Monday night against a more permanent block of the Biden administration's Covid-19 vaccine mandate in a filing to the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals, saying that Republican-led states and private businesses challenging the mandate have not shown that their claimed injuries "outweigh the harm of [stopping] a Standard that will save thousands of lives and prevent hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations."

In the filing, the Justice Department said the petitioners' legal objections lack merit and rejected their claim that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's authority to issue this vaccine mandate is an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power. While the states and private businesses seek emergency relief, the department argued, "most of their asserted harms are at least a month off, and many of their claimed harms relate to a testing requirement that does not become effective until January 2022."

The department's response comes after the federal appeals court over the weekend temporarily blocked the administration's new vaccine rules that will apply to private businesses with 100 or more employees, certain health care workers and federal contractors.

The Justice Department is asking the 5th Circuit to lift its administrative stay in order to allow the lawsuit to move forward in the way that has been set by Congress. The 10-day process, the department argued in its filing, would play out well before any employee could be required to receive a vaccine, which petitioners argue would be December 7 to comply with the January 4 deadline. The White House said earlier Monday that private companies should abide by the new mandate as the court battle plays out.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/08/politics/white-house-vaccine-mandate/index.html

An interesting strategy to claim simultaneously that businesses should start implementing the policy right away and that there's no need for the court to act quickly because the policy doesn't take effect for weeks.

The stronger argument appears to be that the court should defer rapid decision-making until they find out whether they're the court that will hear the appeal in the first place. The "10-day process" (emphasized above) refers to how the federal courts handle cases that are filed in multiple jurisdictions at the same time (to discourage "forum shopping" ). A lottery may be set up to select between the various circuits that currently have a case.

Unfortunately - I think that those circuits currently include just the 5th, 6th, 8th, and 11th circuits (all bright red). My guess is that proponents of the policy are trying hard to get a case in front of a friendlier court to add to the lottery chances.

Plaintiffs' response is due today.

[Phoenix61]

1. Couldn't find anything about implement

Employees have until Dec 7th to get the first shot and be fully vaccinated by the deadline. They could always get the J&J the day before the deadline.

[FBaggins]

2. "White House tells businesses to proceed with vaccine mandate despite court-ordered pause"

* The White House on Monday said businesses should move forward with the requirements despite the court-ordered pause.

* The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, considered one of the most conservative appellate courts in the country, halted the requirements Saturday pending review.

* Republican attorneys general in at least 26 states have challenged President Joe Biden’s vaccine and testing requirements in five different U.S. appeals courts.

* The Biden administration asked the court to lift the pause Monday evening, claiming it could cost dozens or hundreds of lives per day.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/08/biden-vaccine-mandate-white-house-tells-business-to-go-ahead-despite-court-pause.html