(CN) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued the Biden administration over vaccine mandates yet again – this time to challenge the validity of a requirement that private companies with 100 or more employees get inoculated against Covid-19.
Friday's lawsuit comes a day after President Joe Biden issued an emergency rule through the Department of Labor’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration, or OSHA, expanding the government’s vaccination requirements to include private businesses in addition to a requirement that all federal employees and contractors receive the vaccine.
Texas claimed in a lawsuit last week that the vaccine mandate related to federal employees was unconstitutional because it is too broad. The new challenge filed as a petition for review in the Fifth Circuit asks the New Orleans-based court to strike down the rule as unconstitutional. Petitions for review of a final agency rule are brought in appellate courts.
“The Biden administration’s new vaccine mandate on private businesses is a breathtaking abuse of federal power,” Paxton, a Republican, said in a statement, adding that OSHA "has only limited power and specific responsibilities.”
“This latest move goes way outside those bounds. This ‘standard’ is flatly unconstitutional,” Paxton said. “Bottom line: Biden’s new mandate is bad policy and bad law, and I’m asking the court to strike it down.”
The attorneys general of Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana and Utah joined Texas as plaintiffs in Friday’s challenge, as well as several businesses. Paxton said he would also file a motion asking the Fifth Circuit to halt the mandate.
Fed up with vaccine-resistant Americans amid a spike in Covid-19 cases and deaths caused by the highly infectious delta variant, Biden announced a new plan in September that, in addition to the rule for federal contractor employees, requires all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workforces are fully vaccinated, or tested every week, and requires vaccinations for all federal employees, hospital and nursing home workers — mandates that cover 84 million Americans.
In response to Biden’s push, Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued an executive order Oct. 11 barring all entities in Texas, including private businesses, from forcing anyone to get Covid-19 vaccines.
The Biden administration says its vaccine mandate preempts any inconsistent state or local laws, including laws banning or limiting an employer’s authority to require vaccinations, masks or testing.
The vaccine mandate for businesses with 100 or more employees took effect Friday. It requires businesses to ensure that their employees are fully vaccinated by Jan. 4, or that any unvaccinated employees produce a verified negative test on a weekly basis.
Unvaccinated workers are required to wear masks indoors by Dec. 5.
The Biden administration says 70% of adult Americans are now fully vaccinated against Covid-19, which has taken the lives of 750,000 people nationwide.
“I’m calling on employers to act,” Biden said Thursday. “Businesses have more power than ever before to accelerate our path out of this pandemic, save lives, and protect our economic recovery.”
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