Missouri court temporarily blocks vaccine mandate for some healthcare workers
The legal fight against vaccine mandates continues across the country.
The United States District Court, Eastern District of Missouri, has issued a preliminary injunction halting the Biden Administration from enforcing its vaccine mandate on healthcare workers in Missouri and nine other states, including Kansas and Arkansas
Missouri Governor Mike Parson announced the news on Twitter Monday morning
Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt and nine other state attorneys general filed the lawsuit November 10, arguing that the mandate will threaten numerous already short-staffed nursing homes, hospitals and other facilities with closure. Small rural facilities are at particular risk of closure.
“I continue to encourage Kansans to be vaccinated, but that personal health care decision should be made by each individual and not mandated by any federal government agency,” Schmidt said. “This overreaching, one-size-fits-all mandate would further disrupt and impede the efforts of health care facilities and their employees all across Kansas to provide the care Kansans expect and deserve.”
The court says several factors favor the injunction, including:
- Congress did not grant Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) authority to mandate the vaccine.
- CMS improperly bypassed notice and comment requirements.
- The mandate is arbitrary and capricious.
Click here to see the full ruling
Employees were set to have their first vaccine dose before December 6.
This injunction is the second blocking a Biden administration vaccine mandate. A different federal court has stayed the so-called OSHA mandate that applied to private employers with more than 100 employees. A third lawsuit filed by AG Schmidt challenges the mandate for federal contractors and is scheduled for a hearing Friday on the state’s request for a preliminary injunction.