Appeals Court Restores Biden’s Federal Employee Vaccine Mandate

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday removed a lower court injunction that halted President Joe Biden’s nationwide Covid-19 vaccine mandate for federal employees, empowering the government to penalize or terminate workers who fail to get vaccinated.

The appellate court voted 2-1 to remove Texas-based district court Judge Jeffrey Vincent Brown’s preliminary injunction issued January 21, in which Brown found that Biden had gone too far by enacting the policy without congressional approval.

The appeals court found that Brown did not have proper jurisdiction to decide the case, and said the plaintiffs—several groups of federal employees—should have challenged Biden’s mandate under the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act, which allows federal workers who have been disciplined to appeal to the Merit Systems Protections Board.