The federal government has yet to indicate whether it will appeal a judgment handed down by a Louisiana judge that stops the government’s vaccine mandate for staff and volunteers in the Head Start program for young children.
The Sept. 21 opinion by Judge Terry Doughty of the Western District of Louisiana concluded the federal educational program that helps low-income families prepare their young children for school should not have to follow the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Doughty also overturned the Biden administration’s masking mandate for 2-, 3- and 4-year-olds enrolled in Head Start programs.
“The federal government has 60 days from Wednesday, Sept. 21, to appeal the decision to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals,” Kristen Williamson, spokeswoman for the Liberty Justice Center, told the Louisiana Record in an email. “We have not heard whether they will or not.”
The Liberty Justice System and the New Orleans-based Pelican Institute for Public Policy represented plaintiff Sandy Brick, a Louisiana Head Start teacher, in the litigation. Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry also sued the Biden administration over the Head Start mandate, leading other states to join that legal battle, and the cases were eventually consolidated.
“I am grateful Judge Doughty applied the law and blocked this federal overreach from burdening some of our neighbors most in need,” Landry said in a prepared statement. “As I said when we first filed suit, masking 2-year-olds and force-vaccinating teachers in our underserved communities would impede child development and cost jobs. Fortunately, this attack has been thwarted.”
Doughty’s opinion sided with motions made by attorneys for Brick and 24 states, including Louisiana, Florida and Georgia, to grant a permanent injunction against the Head Start mandates.
The plaintiff states would have sustained an irreparable injury if the federal mandates were left in place, and they would have been unable to enforce their laws and fully utilize their police powers, according to Doughty’s decision.
“Although vaccines arguably serve the public interest, the liberty interests of individuals mandated to take the COVID-19 vaccine outweigh any interest generated by the mandatory administration of vaccines,” he said.