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hio Attorney General Dave Yost applauded a federal appeals court decision to block the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in Cincinnati agreed late Thursday with a lower court ruling that imposed a preliminary injunction on the proposed mandate that would have also required tens of millions of Americans to wear face masks at work.
“The court reaffirmed a basic civics lesson: the executive branch cannot demand compliance with a rule it never had the authority to write in the first place,” Yost said.
Shortly after the federal guidance was issued, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee, along with two Ohio sheriffs sued the president and several federal agencies to stop the mandate. The district court, in granting the preliminary injunction, said Biden likely exceeded his authority.
The federal government immediately appealed and the 6th Circuit – serving Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee – denied a motion to stay the injunction.
The appeals court, in Kentucky v. Biden, called the scope of the mandate stunning.
“We thus agree with our colleagues that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed in showing that the President exceeded his authority in issuing the contractor mandate,” the 6th Circuit’s recent ruling said.
