Texas Border Business
AUSTIN, Texas – Attorney General Paxton has joined a Florida-led amicus brief in the San Francisco-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in support of Arizona’s efforts to strike down the federal contractor vaccine mandate.
The brief highlights the many ways President Biden and his Office of Management and Budget (OMB) far exceeded their legal authority to try and enact theCOVID-19 vaccine mandate, which they presented as a public health measure. A district court previously recognized the Biden Administration’s unlawful actions and enjoined the policy, preventing it from taking effect. The Administration has since appealed that decision.
The brief filed by Texas and other states notes that while the Biden Administration claims this mandate will protect the U.S. labor market, it would likely do the opposite by exacerbating the current national labor shortage.
“[R]oughly two-thirds of the unvaccinated say they would quit their job in response to a vaccine mandate. Instead of addressing the alleged threat of temporary labor shortages caused by periodic sick leave, the mandate threatens contractors with mass terminations and resignations. . . . . [T]he President did not possess credible evidence at the time he issued the Executive Order that increased vaccination among employees would meaningfully reduce COVID transmission—and that has only become more clear with respect to newer variants,” the brief states.
The amicus brief was filed following a recent, related decision by the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, which declared that the Biden Administration’s unconstitutional mandate exceeded its legal authority. Attorney General Paxton, a leader in the fight against the left’s illegal mandates, filed two amicus briefs over the summer in opposition to the federal contractor mandate.
To read the full amicus brief, click here.
