Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery announced that he and the attorneys general in Ohio and Kentucky have filed suit against the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors.
This, according to a press release that members of Slatery’s staff emailed Thursday.
“Unless we intervene, federal contractors in Tennessee will be forced to make sense of the mandate’s many inconsistencies that require their entire workforce be vaccinated or face potential blacklisting and loss of future federal contracts,” Slatery said in the press release.
“That is simply unworkable and this lawsuit seeks to stop it.”
The lawsuit, which the attorneys general filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, asserts that the Biden administration’s mandatory vaccination requirement is unlawful and unconstitutional.
In the lawsuit, the attorneys general outline the harm they say that Biden’s mandate will cause for their respective states.
Nationwide, the Department of Labor reports that federal contractors account for approximately one-fifth of the country’s entire labor force, Slatery’s press release said.
The coalition of attorneys general argues in their suit that the potential workforce loss among federal contractors presents a significant concern for the economies of their states and could exacerbate ongoing supply-chain issues.
Biden, in September and by executive order, directed federal departments and agencies to include a clause in contracts requiring all contractors and subcontractors to adopt COVID Safety protocols.
Later that month, the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force issued guidance imposing a vaccination mandate more expansive than Biden’s executive order.
Slatery last week said that that agency’s guidance “is internally inconsistent and is at odds with actions taken elsewhere by the federal government.”
On Wednesday, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and other state officials warned that Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors could kill several Georgia jobs and even compromise the state’s food safety.
Georgia Agriculture Secretary Gary Black said the COVID-19 pandemic proves America’s agriculture is paramount. He also spoke of cooperative agreements with the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“We need clarity. We need to know if food inspection will be interrupted by a presidential executive order? Is meat inspection going to be interrupted?” Black asked.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
