Fifth Circuit overturns nationwide injunction on vaccine mandate for health care workers

(CN) — A federal appeals court Wednesday overruled a nationwide injunction against a mandate from the Biden administration for health care workers at federally funded facilities to be vaccinated against Covid-19.

In the underlying lawsuit from 14 state attorneys general, a federal judge in Louisiana issued a nationwide injunction against the mandate that cuts federal funding to Medicare- and Medicaid-certified hospitals, hospices and other care facilities if they employ unvaccinated workers.

The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — which hears appeals from the federal courts in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas — concluded Wednesday, however, that the lower court failed to justify the wide scope of its injunction.

“The question posed is whether one district court should make a binding judgment for the entire country,” the three-judge panel wrote in an unsigned opinion.

In contrast to nationwide policies that the Fifth Circuit upheld in a 2015 immigration lawsuit filed by Texas, the appellate panel noted that the present vaccine mandate case is different because of the “constitutional command for ‘uniform’ immigration laws.”

“Lacking is either the constitutional uniformity principle in Texas or that case’s concern that patchwork rulings would undermine an injunction limited to certain jurisdictions,” the panel wrote.

The 14 states challenging the mandate before the Fifth Circuit are Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia.

With this injunction overturned, the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate remains in effect in 25 states. The 14 states suing in the case before the Fifth Circuit, and 10 states that successfully sought an injunction for the mandate in late November, are temporarily exempted. In the latter case, a Missouri federal judge said the mandate “challenges traditional notions of federalism.”

Additionally, Texas was granted an exemption from the mandate by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk later on Dec. 15 in a separate federal lawsuit.

On Monday, Dec. 13, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to issue an injunction requested by New York health care workers who challenged a state mandate requiring them to get vaccinated against Covid-19.

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