Attorneys general from 10 states sued the Biden administration in federal court Friday over its order requiring federal contractors to get vaccinated for Covid-19, one day after Florida separately sued the administration, part of a broader opposition by Republican-led states to the federal government’s vaccine mandates for workers.
AGs in Missouri, Nebraska, Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming sued President Joe Biden and multiple federal agencies and officials over federal guidance and an executive order mandating Covid-19 vaccinations for all workers for employers that have covered contracts with the federal government.
The lawsuit alleges the vaccine requirement violates federal procurement laws, the 10th Amendment, the separation of powers and the Administrative Procedure Act, arguing the mandate is “unconstitutional, unlawful, and unwise.”
The AGs challenge the “sweeping breadth” of the mandate, which they note applies to employees at a workplace that has a federal contract even if their own work is “wholly unrelated.”
The complaint also alleges the vaccine requirement “directly infringes the State’s sovereign authority” because it affects state agencies and departments that also have federal contracts, and will “inflict direct injury” on the states through things like the cost of enforcing the mandate and “[making]
it harder to retain and attract employees.”
A spokesperson for the White House’s Office of Management and Budget defended the vaccine mandate to Forbes, saying in a statement the “Department of Justice and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have already determined that Covid vaccines can be mandated by employers.”