WASHINGTON – A United States appeals court on Thursday unblocked the imposition of vaccination against COVID-19 for all employees and contractors of the federal government, which had been paralyzed at the national level since January by decision of a Texas judge.
A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that the Texas district judge did not have jurisdiction over President Joe Biden’s mandate, which required federal workers to be protected from the coronavirus by a deadline of June 22. of November.
Last September, Biden ordered all federal employees and contractors, some 3.5 million people, to get vaccinated – with medical or religious exceptions – to control the pandemic in the midst of the wave of the Delta variant, but the measure was challenged in December.
According to local media, the organization Feds for Medical Freedom, which brings together thousands of federal employees opposed to vaccines, took the order to court arguing that Biden had exceeded his power and Texas judge Jeffrey Brown agreed, which resulted in his blocking.
Brown, once appointed by former President Donald Trump, questioned in his decision whether the president could, “without input from Congress, require millions of federal employees to undergo a medical procedure as a condition of their employment.”
Government attorneys, for their part, told the appeals court that blocking the order harmed the public interest and that the employees were attempting to “avoid” due process through the Civil Service Reform Act, to which they gave the reason the panel of judges.
The White House disclosed at the end of January that 98% of federal employees were already immunized.
–
