A U.S. appeals court on Monday rejected the White House’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate for federal contractors in a 2-1 ruling, Reuters reported.
The U.S. Appeals Court for the 5th Circuit upheld a lower court ruling against the Biden administration’s requirement for contractors to ensure that their personnel are vaccinated against coronavirus in compliance with the September 2021 executive order.
The court’s majority opinion authored by Judge Kurt Engelhardt stated that a broad interpretation of the mandate could provide the president “nearly unlimited authority to introduce requirements into federal contracts.”
According to the Department of Justice, the executive order was lawful due to the Procurement Act.
In October, the Office of Management and Budget and the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force announced that they would release guidance documents to agencies on how to handle vaccine protocols in anticipation of the aftermath of a court decision that partially lifted the ban on the federal contractor vaccine mandate.
OMB and the task force also called on federal agencies not to take any measures to enforce the vaccine mandate until all the guidance documents were issued.
