US: Over two dozen states sue Biden administration over COVID vaccine-or-testing mandate

US President Joe Biden's vaccine-or-test mandate that made it compulsory for over 84 million American workers to get jabbed against the novel coronavirus was blocked by a federal appeals court earlier yesterday after at least 27 states sued him. States filed several lawsuits against the 4 January mandate by the Biden administration that entailed all workers in big companies with 100 or more employees shall be vaccinated to combat the coronavirus outbreak latest by January 2022, or else, get tested against the novel virus weekly with a negative diagnosis to continue in their jobs.

Biden’s boldest move yet triggered mass resignations, and an upsurge of employee layoffs at the corporations as vaccine-hesitant Americans questioned the rule citing infringement of their civil liberties and human rights. As firms slapped financial consequences and no pay dismissal for the non-inoculated workforce, more than two dozen states pushed back against President’s new rule, stepping up a legal challenge involving 25 attorneys generals, dozens of coalition, and one solicitor general, according to US press reports.

Biden administration can encourage, suggest but not mandate COVID-19 vaccines: States 

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt along with 10 others, filed a lawsuit in the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, calling US President Joe Biden’s new government rule “unconstitutional, unlawful, and unwise,” The Hill reported. The filing stressed that Biden had no constitutional authority as such to enforce the controversial mandate on the American citizens. The rule “unconstitutionally infringes on the States’ powers,” the lawsuit states. 

“There should be no reason for hesitation in passing a ban on vaccine mandates or passport requirements or, at a minimum, requiring religious or medical exemptions in such requirements. OSHA’s vaccination mandate represents a real threat to individual liberty,” West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said in a statement, cited by US broadcasters. 

“As we have seen throughout the country, it is also a public policy disaster that displaces vulnerable workers and exacerbates a nationwide shortage of front-line workers, with severe consequences for all Americans,” he went on to add.

The attorney general argued that the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which was ordered to force the companies to test the unvaccinated workers for COVID-19, is not authorised to instate such federal public health regulations on the public. “Its unlawful mandate will cause injuries and hardship to the working families, inflict economic disruption and staffing shortages on the States and private employers, and impose even greater strains on struggling labor markets and supply chains,” the attorney general alleged in the lawsuit, according to The Hill.

Other states such as Arizona, Montana, Nebraska, Arkansas, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, New Hampshire, and Wyoming also joined the state of Arizona debating that the OSHA neither held the constitutional nor statutory authority to implement such rules. The states emphasised that the administration can encourage and suggest, but not mandate the COVID-19 vaccination.