A Georgia federal judge issued a nationwide stay on President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate Tuesday in the latest victory for the Republican effort to stop the requirement.
U.S. District Judge Stan Baker issued the ruling Tuesday afternoon, joining two other federal court decisions blocking Biden’s mandate from taking effect. The Biden administration is looking to require vaccinations for all federal employees and employees of federal contractors.
“Abuse of power by the Biden administration has been stopped cold again,” Republican South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said Tuesday. Wilson joined the lawsuit against Biden’s mandate along with Georgia, Alabama, Indiana, Kansas, South Carolina, Utah, and West Virginia.
The initial partial stay of Biden’s mandate came on Nov. 29 from U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp of Missouri, when he issued a temporary injunction while the larger question of the mandate’s legality was litigated.
U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty of Louisiana expanded that injunction the following day. The two decisions objected to enforcement through the federal Centers for Medicare and Medical Services (CMS). CMS sought to require more than 10.3 million of its affiliated healthcare workers across the country to receive two doses of COVID-19 over the course of two months. The policy was to have taken effect on Nov. 5 and would have required healthcare workers to receive their first dose by Dec. 6 and a second dose by Jan. 4.
The decisions also blocked Biden’s effort to require businesses with more than 100 employees to enforce a vaccine mandate on their workers.
“In addressing the geographic scope of the preliminary injunction, due to the nationwide scope of the CMS Mandate, a nationwide injunction is necessary due to the need for uniformity,” the court document issued by the U.S District Court for The Western District of Louisiana said .
Baker’s decision Tuesday blocks the final piece of the Biden administration’s mandate, as it relates to federal contractors.
