ARCHIVE – Protesters gather for a rally against COVID-19 vaccine orders in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, on January 23, 2022. A federal court of appeals on Thursday, April 7, 2022, upheld the claim that federal workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19. President Joe Biden’s demand that all federal officials be vaccinated against COVID-19 was upheld on Thursday by a federal appeals court. In a 2-1 decision, a committee of the 5th Regional Court of Appeals overturned a lower court and ordered the dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the mandate. The ruling, a rare victory for the administration in New Orleans Court of Appeals, said the federal judge had no jurisdiction over the case and those who challenged the claim could have appealed under the Civil Service Act. Biden issued an executive order on September 9 ordering vaccinations for all executive branch employees, with the exception of medical and religious reasons. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown, who was appointed to the South Texas District Court by then-President Donald Trump, issued a national injunction against the claim in January. When the case was heard in the 5th Circuit last month, the administration’s lawyers noted that district judges in twelve jurisdictions had rejected a challenge to the federal staff vaccination requirement before Brown ruled. The administration argued that the Constitution gives the president, as head of the federal workforce, the same power as the CEO of a private company to require employees to be vaccinated. Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. Twelve of the 17 active judges in the 5th Circuit have been nominated in court by Republicans, including six Trump nominees. Judges Carl Stewart and James Dennis, both nominated in court by President Bill Clinton, were in the majority. Judge Rhesa Barksdale, a senior judge appointed by President George HW Bush, disagreed, saying the relief sought by the plaintiffs was not part of a government-sponsored civil service reform bill. The case marked ideological divisions in the appellate court even before Thursday’s ruling. A separate panel had refused in February to block Brown’s decision pending appeal. The vote of this committee was 2-1. There were no reasons given by the majority – Judge Jerry Smith, a candidate for President Ronald Reagan, and Don Willett, a candidate for Trump. However, there was a long-running dispute between Judge Stephen Higginson, President Barack Obama’s candidate, who said a district judge “who has no public health know-how and is not accountable throughout his term” should not may prevent the President from ordering the same formula. of security measures for COVID-19 many private sector CEOs have ordered.
