12 more states sue Biden administration over COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers

by ian

Ian Patrick, FISM News

 

A total of 22 states are now suing the Biden administration over its sweeping COVID-19 vaccine mandate, specifically the part that requires health care workers in facilities including hospitals to take the shot or risk termination.

After 10 states led by Missouri filed a joint lawsuit against the Biden administration last week challenging the health care vaccine mandate, a coalition of 12 more states led by Louisiana filed a similar suit.

Both suits list the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and its administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, as well as the Department of Health and Human Services and its Secretary Xavier Becerra as defendants.

The Missouri-led lawsuit also adds additional defendants including Deputy Administrator and Director of Center for Medicare Dr. Meena Seshamani, Deputy Administrator and Director of Center for Medicaid and CHIP services Daniel Tsai, the United States of America, and President Biden.

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said in a statement that he filed the suit because Biden’s mandate threatens “the jobs of millions of our healthcare heroes who risked their lives last year.”

Biden’s bureaucrats at CMS are threatening the jobs of millions of our healthcare heroes who risked their lives last year caring for our neighbors with COVID-19. What’s more: the mandate once again gives more rights and protections to illegal aliens than American citizens. The federal government will not impose medical tyranny on Louisiana’s people without my best fight.

He further pointed out what he insinuated as hypocrisy from Biden – that the mandate will fire more workers at a time of admitted “endemic staff shortages” across all fields.

Both lawsuits seeks to overturn the mandate on multiple counts that aim to show it violates the Constitution. While the suits are separate, they share common counts such as: overreach of statutory authority from the CMS; violation of the Spending Clause in the Constitution; and violation of the Tenth Amendment which reserves powers not explicitly given to the federal government for states alone.

The Missouri-led lawsuit brings nine counts and includes Missouri, Nebraska, Arkansas, Kansas, Iowa, Wyoming, Alaska, North and South Dakota, and New Hampshire. The Louisiana-led suit brings ten counts and includes Louisiana, Montana, Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia.

The Biden administration is currently facing multiple other lawsuits that target the President’s September-announced mandate that requires all private businesses employees, federal contractors, and most health care facility workers to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or provide weekly negative tests.

Recently FISM News reported the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld a previous stay on the mandate for private businesses with over 100 employees, calling it “a one-size-fits-all sledgehammer.” A total of 34 lawsuits, seemingly led by conservative news outlet The Daily Wire, were consolidated as it moves to the 6th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

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