Federal Appeals Court Rules Against Biden Administration COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate

A civilian contractor receives his COVID-19 vaccine from Preventative Medicine Services in Fort Knox, Kentucky, on Sept. 9, 2021. Jon Cherry/Getty Images

On Jan. 12, a federal appeals court in Ohio upheld a lower court’s ban on forcing federal contractors to ensure that their workers in Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee are vaccinated against COVID-19.

A panel of the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati affirmed a lower court’s 2021 ruling that said the Biden administration’s mandate requiring workers contracting with the federal government to wear face masks and be vaccinated for COVID-19 was unconstitutional.

The panel in its opinion (pdf) found that Biden lacks the statutory authority to enforce the vaccination mandate for federal contractor workers, pointing to the president’s alleged authority to do so under the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act, also known as the Property Act.

“We decline the government’s invitation to construe § 121(a) as authorizing the President to ignore the limits inherent in the Property Act’s operative provisions in favor of an ‘anything goes’ pursuit of a broad statutory purpose,” the panel wrote in its ruling.

“Even if we were to indulge the government’s reliance on the Property Act’s declaration of purpose, we would still conclude that the contractor mandate is unlawful,” the judges wrote.

Judges Modify Scope of Injunction

“In the government’s view, the Act ‘empowers the President to prescribe policies and directives that the President considers necessary’ to ‘provide the Federal Government with an economical and efficient system’ for procuring ... property and nonpersonal services, and performing related functions including contracting.' ... Yet the government’s justifications for the mandate center not on how it would make contracting more efficient, but how it would make contractors more efficient,” the ruling stated.

The court did, however, agree with the Biden administration that the lower court’s injunction against the mandate was overbroad in that it extended relief to non-party contractors in the plaintiff states.

When the lawsuit was filed in 2021, the states of Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee had argued if the injunction did not extend to non-party contractors, the federal government could “simply choose to do business with those against whom it could enforce the mandate.”

However, the judges on Thursday ultimately modified the scope of the injunction to prohibit the federal government from enforcing the contractor mandate against the parties only.

“Because an injunction limited to the parties can adequately protect the plaintiffs’ interests while the case is pending disposition on the merits, the district court abused its discretion in extending the preliminary injunction’s protection to non-party contractors in the plaintiff States,” the judges wrote.

Vaccine Mandate on Hold

“The parties agree that federal courts should not issue relief that extends further than necessary to remedy the plaintiff’s injury,” the ruling noted. “We, therefore, take seriously the federal government’s complaint about the overbreadth of the district court’s injunction.”

The Biden administration unveiled details of its federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate on Nov. 4, giving a Jan. 4, 2022, deadline for federal contractors and health care employees who work at Medicare- and Medicaid-funded facilities to be fully vaccinated by then.

The attorneys general of Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee promptly announced they would take legal action against the White House over the rule in November 2021 and filed a lawsuit (pdf).

That lawsuit alleged that the vaccine mandate for federal workers was unlawful and unconstitutional.

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, a Republican who is currently running for governor, praised the court’s ruling in a statement on Twitter on Thursday.

“The Sixth Circuit’s decision is a resounding victory against unlawful federal overreach into the personal medical decisions of Kentuckians,” Cameron said. “For over a year, the Biden administration has fought against us but the court has agreed with our legal arguments and has halted the federal contractor vaccine mandate for Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee.”

Biden’s federal vaccine mandate is not being enforced while litigation against the rule plays out across the country.

The Epoch Times has contacted the White House for comment.