A federal judge of the Eastern District of Missouri on Monday temporarily halted the vaccine mandate for healthcare workers in ten states, according to court documents obtained by Business Insider.
The states of Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, New Hampshire, Nebraska, Wyoming, and North and South Dakota had earlier initiated legal action against the Biden administration, claiming the regulation is unconstitutional.
"For the foregoing reasons, Plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction is granted," Judge Matthew Schelp from the US district court for the Eastern District of Missouri said in the order related to the lawsuit filed by the aforementioned US states.
The court ordered the defendants to immediately cease all implementation or enforcement of the mandate with Comment Period as to any Medicare and Medicaid certified providers and suppliers within those 10 states. The judge also said that defendants are preliminarily enjoined from the implementation and enforcement of the mandate.
Judge Matthew Schelp, nominated in 2019 by former President Donald Trump, said that workers would benefit from his decision "because it would ensure that federal agencies do not extend their power beyond the express delegation from Congress."
He added that mandatory vaccination would harm "the ability of healthcare facilities to provide proper care, and thus, save lives."
On November 4, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued an Interim Final Rule with Comment Period that requires nearly every employee, volunteer, and third-party contractor working at 15 categories of healthcare facilities to be vaccinated against COVID-19, the court filing said. The mandate, which was announced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), requires either COVID-19 vaccination or weekly testing, and also workplace masking by January 4.
The vaccine mandate is facing lawsuits in a number of states, which claim that the president overstepped his authority because the US Constitution requires approval by Congress for such a measure.
Earlier, Biden’s requirement for private businesses, the COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS), was put on hold by a three-judge panel in New Orleans' Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Some experts have asserted that OSHA’s rule is neither legal nor enforceable. Industrial hygienist Kristen Meghan has said that OSHA’s claim that vaccines fall under its hierarchy of controls is not accurate and neither is OSHA’s attempt to present vaccines as being under the elimination aspect of the hierarchy, as they do not eliminate COVID-19.