Twelve states said this week they are suing the Joe Biden White House to block the mandate for health care employees, saying that the mandate is not constitutional and breaks several federal laws.
Attorney generals from Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Idaho, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Montana, South Carolina, West Virginia and Utah revealed the lawsuit this week, saying “the Biden White House is playing shell games with our courts, desperately trying to justify an unjustifiable attempt to federalize public health policy and lower the sovereign States’ constitutional powers.”
“No statute gives the power to Biden to mandate vaccines to boost societal immunity,” the suit says, noting President Biden has pushed the vaccine as the way to increase immunity. “The White House’s solution? Use statutory schemes never before said to give the ability for federal mandates to force the President’s goals into American society.”
The suit fights the mandate that requires Medicare and Medicaid workers to get vaccinated is not constitutional and harms the care of patients as employees are forced to get the shot or be fired.
“The Vaccine Mandate leads to grave danger to vulnerable people whom Medicaid and Medicare were designed to safeguard – the sick and the elderly – by forcing the firing of millions of ‘healthcare heroes’,” the lawsuit reads.
The states’ are requesting a preliminary injunction to stop the enforcement of the vaccine mandate.
Montana AG Austin Knudsen called these mandates “unconstitutional power grabs.”
“The federal mandates are not concerning health – they are about compliance. Healthcare employees should make their own choices about their health – not President Joe Biden. If his unprecedented overreach is not prevented, the access to medical care that Montanans require will be threatened.”
Alabama AG Steve Marshall stated “this is about more than the vaccines. It’s about saying ‘enough is enough.’ The federal government’s power is not unlimited, but if we are now vigilant enough to fight back, there will be no coming back.”
Health care workers who work at health facilities that accept federal money from Medicaid or Medicare must be completely vaccinated by January 4 and don’t have the option to submit to routine testing rather than getting vaccinated.
Author: Blake Ambrose