(LifeSiteNews) — The Biden administration on Monday told businesses they should move forward with requiring workers to get inoculated against COVID-19 despite the fact that the federal government’s jab mandate for businesses with 100 or more employees has been temporarily halted by a federal court which cited “grave statutory and constitutional issues” with the rule.
On Monday, White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said “people should not wait” for the courts to rule on the constitutionality of the mandate.
Jean-Pierre, who has been filling in for press secretary Jen Psaki she had tested positive for the coronavirus despite being “fully vaccinated,” added that businesses “should continue to move forward and make sure they’re getting their workplace vaccinated.”
The White House told private businesses to continue implementing Joe Biden’s vaccine and testing rule on Monday after a federal appeals court ordered a stay over the weekend. https://t.co/6lMMyRANXn
— Nick Short (@PoliticalShort) November 9, 2021
“Do not wait to take actions that will keep your workplace safe. It is important and critical to do, and waiting to get more people vaccinated will lead to more outbreaks and sickness,” Jean-Pierre said.
The comments came after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit moved Saturday to temporarily stay the Biden administration’s sweeping mandate, which was enacted through an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) via the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) under the U.S. Department of Labor.
If implemented, the mandate would force employers to require their workers to show proof of “full vaccination” or participate in frequent testing and wear a mask while indoors on the job.
Issued in response to a request for a stay submitted by Texas, Utah, Mississippi, and South Carolina, as well as a group of businesses and religious groups that argued they would be negatively affected by the mandate, the court’s Saturday ruling temporarily stalled the controversial requirement, which is intended to take effect January 4, 2022.
BREAKING: The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has put a stay on the Biden administration’s requirement to have workers fully vaccinated by Jan. 4. https://t.co/UNmwJ2O86m pic.twitter.com/inbI1ftyrX
— KUTV2news (@KUTV2News) November 6, 2021
Though the Fifth Circuit was the first court to rule on the case just two days after the Biden administration released its 490-page document outlining the mandate, more than half of U.S. states have also filed suit against the government along with a bevy of private companies.
On Thursday, conservative media outfit The Daily Wire was one of the first major companies to sue the federal government for its OSHA mandate, calling the rule a “grotesque abuse of power.”
In response to the Fifth Circuit Court’s order that the federal government reply to its ruling by 5 p.m. Monday, officials in the Biden administration responded by asking the court to lift the stay and arguing that a continued pause of the rule could cost lives.
In its 28-page response, the government argued that “[n]o reason exists to rule on petitioners’ stay motions immediately,” and “a stay would likely cost dozens or even hundreds of lives per day.”
However, the Biden administration’s own rule issued allegedly in response to the “emergency” posed by the spread of COVID-19 comes nearly two months after it was announced by President Joe Biden, and even if upheld by the courts will not take effect until January.
The Monday response to the court also failed to note that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has admitted that the shots do not stop transmission of the virus. Meanwhile, a growing body of data indicates that the strategy of mandating experimental COVID-19 drugs to defeat the coronavirus has failed, undercutting the rationale for continuing mandates.
While the federal government considers 194 million Americans (58% of those eligible) to be “fully vaccinated,” ABC News reported last month that more Americans died of COVID-19 this year (353,000) than in all of 2020 (352,000), according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Further, it remains unclear how many jabs Americans will need in future to keep their jobs if the mandate were to be implemented. As the effectiveness of the COVID-19 drugs on the market has plummeted, the CDC has already signaled it may change the definition of “fully vaccinated” to include at least one booster shot.
It is also unclear how the federal court will respond to the government’s request for a lifting of the stay, and whether the case will be heard in another court.
David Vladeck, a law professor at Georgetown University, told CNBC it’s very likely the case will go all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“There are justices on the court who want to rein in the administrative state and this is a case in which those concerns are likely to come to the fore,” Vladeck said.
Whether or not the matter goes to the Supreme Court, the divisive mandate has been met with stiff opposition from states and businesses and appears likely to undergo serious judicial challenges.
“The federal government can’t just unilaterally impose medical policy under the guise of workplace regulation, and that is exactly what they’re trying to do here,” said Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis in a Thursday press conference in which he announced his state would join with Georgia and Alabama to sue the Biden administration.
DeSantis has also moved to ensure the permanent protection of Floridians’ jobs and freedoms by holding a special legislative session set to commence November 15.
“This is truly a prohibition on vaccine mandates being implemented by businesses.”@GovRonDeSantis will call a special session of the #Florida legislature to vote on banning the Biden administration’s private company #VaccineMandates. https://t.co/rbctNjYTj3
— The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) November 8, 2021
In the special session, the GOP-dominated legislature is set to consider a raft of legislative proposals to prohibit employer jab mandates, defend the rights of parents to decide whether or not their children should wear masks at school, and ban schools in the Sunshine State from mandating COVID-19 shots or quarantines.
Further, a proposal supported by House Speaker Chris Sprowls (R-Palm Harbor) and Senate President Wilton Simpson (R-Trilby) would see Florida pull out of OSHA entirely, replacing the federal safety administration with one operated by the state.
“If OSHA, the Department of Labor and OSHA, is going to be weaponized as a way to hold hostage businesses throughout the state of Florida, no problem. We want a different plan,” Sprowls said. “We want out of OSHA. We’ll submit our own regulatory authority and say goodbye to the federal government.”
If upheld by the courts, the OSHA rule would impact some 84 million Americans and slam noncompliant businesses with fines of $13,653 per violation or, for repeated noncompliance, up to $136,532 per offense. The U.S. Department of Labor has also suggested it may consider expanding the requirement to include businesses with fewer than 100 employees, potentially impacting nearly every adult American.