Alaska and 17 other states filed three separate lawsuits last Friday to block President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate for federal contractors, arguing that the requirement violates federal law.
Attorneys general from Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming signed on to one lawsuit, which was filed in a federal district court in Missouri. Another group of states including Georgia, Alabama, Idaho, Kansas, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Georgia.
Texas also sued individually last Friday.
The states asked the courts to block Biden’s requirement that all employees of federal contractors be vaccinated against the Coronavirus by Dec. 8, arguing that the mandate violates federal procurement law and is an overreach of federal power.
“If the federal government attempts to unconstitutionally exert its will and force federal contractors to mandate vaccinations, the workforce and businesses could be decimated, further exacerbating the supply chain and workforce crises,” Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, a Republican, said in a statement.
“The federal government should not be mandating vaccinations, and that’s why we filed suit today,” Schmitt said.
New Hampshire’s Republican Attorney General John Formella said in a statement that COVID vaccines are safe, effective and encouraged, but that the benefits “do not justify violating the law.”
Florida sued last Thursday, bringing to 19 the number of states challenging the Biden administration mandate in four federal courts.
Biden has argued that sweeping vaccine mandates will help end the deadly pandemic, but Republicans nationwide have opposed the vaccination requirements and have threatened to bring similar legal challenges.
A number of states have also said they will challenge Biden’s plan to have the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration issue a rule that would mandate vaccines for all private businesses with 100 or more employees.
“We will not allow the Biden administration to circumvent the law or force hardworking Georgians to choose between their livelihood or this vaccine,” Republican Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia said in a statement.
The Democratic Party of Georgia called the state’s lawsuit a “dangerous political stunt.”
All the suits argue that the president doesn’t have the authority to issue the rule and that it violates procurement law. The suits also argue that the rule violates the 10th Amendment reserving power to the states, illegally uses federal spending to coerce the states, and that 60 days of public comment wasn’t properly allowed.
The states argue that large number of federal contract workers will quit, meaning states will have to choose between breaching the contracts because of a reduced labor force that can’t do all the work, or breaching the contracts by retaining unvaccinated employees in violation of federal rules.
All but two of the states that have sued trail the national average in vaccination rate. Only New Hampshire and Florida exceed the nationwide rate.
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