The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has halted enforcement of the Biden administration’s COVID-19 mandate for millions of private-sector employees in a case that was advanced by the New Orleans-based Pelican Institute for Public Policy.
The court last weekend sided with Louisiana businessman Brandon Trosclair and several workers from Texas in a challenge to the rule published last week by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). That plan would require those who work for employers with payrolls of 100 or more to get vaccinated.
“Because the petitions give cause to believe there are grave statutory and constitutional issues with the mandate, the mandate is hereby stayed pending further action by this court,” the Fifth Circuit said in its Nov. 6 opinion.
Buck Dougherty, the senior attorney with the Liberty Justice Center, which teamed with the Pelican Institute to represent the petitioners, welcomed the appeals court ruling.
“To get an emergency stay within 24 hours on a weekend was really extraordinary,” Dougherty told the Louisiana Record. “So we were very pleased with that. I think the Fifth Circuit obviously recognizes this is an incredible, unprecedented thing that we have in our country. … Courts of appeals typically don’t make those kinds of pronouncements unless they really see there is a legitimate problem with the mandate.”
In a motion supporting a permanent injunction against the mandate, the petitioners’ attorneys argue that the OSHA action – dubbed an emergency temporary standard (ETS) – represents administrative overreach.
“This court should rule in (the petitioners’) favor because 1) an injunction from this court is needed now to stave off irreparable harm to petitioners; and 2) the ETS exceeds OSHA’s statutory authority,” the motion filed on Tuesday states.
Attorneys for the Biden administration argue petitioners’ claims of economic harm from having to abide by the vaccine mandate pales in comparison to how the mandate would likely save thousands of lives and prevent hundreds of thousands of coronavirus hospitalizations.
Because other parties have petitioned other federal appeals courts to challenge the mandate, a multidistrict judicial panel will ultimately decide later this month which circuit will rule on the merits of the legal actions, Dougherty said.
Sarah Harbison, the Pelican Institute’s general counsel, said the Fifth Circuit’s temporary stay represents a sign that the mandate is not only illegal but just plain wrong.
“This mandate is well beyond the scope of OSHA and would require employers and the government to get in between employees and their private health care decisions," Harbison said in an email to the Record.