by Eric Lendrum
On Thursday, a federal court upheld Joe Biden’s mandate that all federal government employees be forced to take a coronavirus vaccine.
The New York Post reports that the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, Louisiana issued a ruling that overturned a lower court’s decision to block the mandate, which was first issued in September of 2021. In January, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown had ruled the mandate unconstitutional, determining that the rule constituted an overstep in federal authority.
Judge Brown’s ruling came shortly after the Supreme Court struck down the most comprehensive of Biden’s three vaccine mandates, which ordered the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to force all private businesses with over 100 employees to mandate vaccinations, or else face fines and other penalties. At the same time, the court upheld the vaccine mandate for healthcare workers in facilities that received funding from the federal programs Medicaid and Medicare.
In this latest case, lawyers for the Biden Administration argued that the federal workers’ mandate was legal due to Biden having the same authority over the federal government as any CEO would have over their own private company. They also pointed out that 98 percent of federal employees had already either been vaccinated or pursued exemptions for medical or religious reasons.
With this decision, two of Biden’s three vaccine mandates have been ruled constitutional despite the overwhelming controversy surrounding them, with the general population opposing such restrictions. Nevertheless, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) claims that 82 percent of Americans over the age of five years have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
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Eric Lendrum graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he was the Secretary of the College Republicans and the founding chairman of the school’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter. He has interned for Young America’s Foundation, the Heritage Foundation, and the White House, and has worked for numerous campaigns including the 2018 re-election of Congressman Devin Nunes (CA-22). He is currently a co-host of The Right Take podcast.
Photo “Joe Biden” by The White House. Background Photo “Governor Wolf Receives COVID- 19 Vaccination” by Governor Tom Wolf. CC BY 2.0.
