DOJ asks federal appeals court to lift temporary order blocking Covid-19 vaccine mandate

The Department of Justice argued Monday night against a more permanent block of the Biden administration's Covid-19 vaccine mandate in a filing to the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals, saying that Republican-led states and private businesses challenging the mandate have not shown that their claimed injuries "outweigh the harm of [stopping] a Standard that will save thousands of lives and prevent hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations."

In the filing, the Justice Department said the petitioners' legal objections lack merit and rejected their claim that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's authority to issue this vaccine mandate is an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power. While the states and private businesses seek emergency relief, the department argued, "most of their asserted harms are at least a month off, and many of their claimed harms relate to a testing requirement that does not become effective until January 2022."

The department's response comes after the federal appeals court over the weekend temporarily blocked the administration's new vaccine rules that will apply to private businesses with 100 or more employees, certain health care workers and federal contractors.

The OSHA rule does allow for employees to remain unvaccinated if they choose, but the employees must provide verified negative tests to their employers at least weekly and must wear face masks in the workplace.