In a message to service officials, the White House warned that “there are still procedural steps that need to be taken to lift the order. at the moment the preliminary order of the district court remains in force “. It is not clear when the services could start enforcing the order, which lays down unvaccinated federal officials who are subject to discipline up to and including dismissal – unless they qualify for a medical or religious exemption or are considering such a request. The latest accounting by management, from the beginning of December, showed that about 93 percent of employees had been vaccinated and an additional 4 percent had either approved or pending exemption requests. The White House message came after the decision of the split committee of the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to restore the executive mandate of President Biden. The judicial majority ruled that the Civil Service Reform Act, the general body governing the 2.1 million employees of the executive branch, required that any challenge to the provision be passed through the government’s internal channels of appeal and not directly to the courts. Under this law, the Merit Systems Protection Board – which operates as an internal judicial system for federal employees – “may order the reimbursement and refund of payment to any non-excluded plaintiffs who are penalized for refusing to receive a COVID vaccine. 19 ». Employees could also ask a separate service, the Office of the Special Prosecutor, to bring a case before the board of trustees, arguing that the provision violates the protection of public services, he added. Administration officials welcomed the decision. “The court ruling is good news,” a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget said on Friday. “Based on the previous application of the requirement for the largest and most diverse professional workforce in the country, we know that vaccination requirements save lives, protect our workforce and enhance our ability to serve the American people.” The previous order, which came in a lawsuit filed by a group called the Feds for Medical Freedom, had banned services from taking disciplinary action against vaccines. and from continuing to process requests for exemptions. The order was enforced nationally, though it did not apply to orders issued by individual services to their own employees prior to Biden’s executive order last September – including one for medical staff in the Veterans Affairs Department. The lower court ruling in late January came at a time when services were preparing to take disciplinary action against non-compliant workers. In February, a different section of the appellate court, also divided, rejected the administration’s request to lift the order on an urgent basis. Disagreeing with Thursday’s ruling, District Judge Rhesa Hawkins Barksdale wrote that workers’ rights under the Civil Service Reform Act, or CSRA, apply only after a service has taken disciplinary action, noting: “Here, there is no action. from the service. Instead, the president is trying to impose a sweeping mandate on the federal political workforce. … [T]The President seeks to require an entire class of workers to be vaccinated or treated for adverse reactions. “Simply put, the CSRA does not cover pre-enforcement employment actions, especially involving 2.1 million federal civil servants,” he added.
