On Friday, a federal judge refused to lift a stay against the vaccine mandate of the Biden administration for businesses with 100 or more employees.
Last Saturday, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals granted an emergency stay to the rule of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration requiring vaccinations and weekly tests for workers by January 4.
On Monday, the Department of Justice and Labor lawyers filed a response in which they claimed that not implementing the mandate would only prolong the COVID-19 breakout and “cost dozens or even hundreds of lives per day.”
This argument, however, was rejected by the appeals court on Friday while Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt stated that the stay “is firmly in the public interest.”
“From economic uncertainty to workplace strife, the mere specter of the Mandate has contributed to untold economic upheaval in recent months,” Engelhardt communicated.
Following OSHA’s rules released on Nov. 4, at least 27 states filed lawsuits against it in six federal appeals courts.
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As part of a court filing on Monday, the federal government recommended that the cases are consolidated and the case is assigned to a circuit court at random on Nov. 16.
In the absence of a determination on which court will ultimately hear the vaccine mandate cases, thus, lawyers for the administration said there is no reason for the vaccine mandate to be kept on hold.