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NEW ORLEANS (LifeSiteNews) — A federal appeals court on Thursday blocked enforcement of the Biden administration’s COVID jab mandate for federal employees, rolling back a previous decision by the same court that initially upheld the requirement. The decision comes as the Biden administration stated earlier this year that it’s planning to finally let the ongoing COVID-19 national state of emergency expire in May.

A majority of the New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued their preliminary injunction in an en banc ruling March 23, affirming a previous January 2022 decision by a Texas judge to block the requirement, the Daily Wire reported. 

The Thursday ruling reversed an April decision by a three-judge panel on the Fifth Circuit to uphold the rule.

The decision means the administration can’t enforce its mandate that the 1.8 million Americans employed by the federal government get the experimental COVID-19 shots.

In the 89-page ruling, in which the court sided with groups including a chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees and the grassroots nonprofit Feds for Medical Freedom, the judges emphasized that the decision was temporary pending further litigation.

The court also pointed out that the ultimate decision will necessarily have to take into account the fact that the Biden administration, which wants to keep the mandate in place, has already stated that it plans to end the nationwide COVID-19 state of emergency in May.

On January 30, the White House notified the U.S. House of Representatives that the state of emergency would be renewed until May 11 but then allowed to expire, LifeSiteNews previously reported. 

Republicans treated the announcement as a win for the GOP, but some suggested Biden should have ended the emergency immediately, rather than drawing it out for several more months.

“Rather than waiting until May 11, the Biden administration should join us now in immediately ending this declaration,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said at the time. “The days of the Biden administration being able to hide behind COVID to waste billions of taxpayer dollars on their unrelated, radical agenda are over.”

READ: Biden announces end to COVID emergency declarations in May

Thursday’s decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals comes as most COVID-related mandates have to date either failed in court or been withdrawn as the COVID pandemic exceeds its third anniversary.

The Biden administration famously failed to push through its sweeping rule using the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to force employers with 100 or more employees to require the jab after the U.S. Supreme Court struck it down in January, 2022. 

In December, the House of Representatives, with an incoming Republican majority, scrapped the U.S. military jab mandate.

Today, all but five U.S. states have abandoned their own public health emergency declarations, and late last year, half of the nation’s governors signed onto a letter urging the Biden administration to repeal the nationwide state of emergency.

READ: ‘Time we move on’: Half of all US governors urge Biden to end national COVID emergency

In addition, many corporations that had forced their employees to take the jab, even though not required to do so by the federal government, have also quietly rolled back their requirements.

The Biden administration’s attempt to hold onto one of the last sweeping jab mandates in the country comes as intrusive public health measures like mask mandates and vaccine requirements have not only failed in the courts but have drawn serious public backlash and created division among Americans. In addition, demand for ongoing booster jabs continues to plummet amid the jabs’ sliding efficacy, failure to stop transmission, and reports of adverse events connected with the experimental drugs. 

Many Americans, like the federal workers with whom the Fifth Circuit sided in its Thursday decision, have resisted COVID jab mandates and sought to make their own medical decisions in the wake of the COVID outbreak for a range of reasons, including  serious concerns about the COVID-19 shots’ safety and efficacy compared with the low risk that most otherwise healthy individuals face from the virus itself. Moreover, a large number of people also harbor serious ethical reservations about the use of cells from aborted babies in the research and development of the drugs.

Many also are simply desirous of putting the entire COVID experience behind them after years of top-down mandates and controls. 

As of March 15, only about 16.4 percent of the U.S. population are “up to date” on their booster jabs, according to the CDC.

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