By The FirstPresident Biden’s vaccine mandate for healthcare workers hit another snag this week when US District Judge Matthew Schelp issued a preliminary injunction. Schelp called the mandate “politically and economically vast, federalism-altering, and boundary-pushing.”
“Schelp, a Donald Trump appointee, said in his ruling that the states who sued the administration were ‘likely to succeed’ in the argument that Congress hadn’t given the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services the authority to create the mandate,” the New York Post reports. “He also said the mandate could put facilities in a bind, without adequate staff to provide services – particularly in rural areas.”
“CMS seeks to overtake an area of traditional state authority by imposing an unprecedented demand to federally dictate the private medical decisions of millions of Americans,” Schelp wrote. “Such action challenges traditional notions of federalism.”
The ruling affects more than 17 million healthcare workers. The states behind the lawsuit include Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.
The Biden administration issued the emergency regulation earlier this month.
“The Biden-Harris Administration is requiring COVID-19 vaccination of eligible staff at health care facilities that participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs,” a press release read. “Facilities covered by this regulation must establish a policy ensuring all eligible staff have received the first dose of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine or a one-dose COVID-19 vaccine prior to providing any care, treatment, or other services by December 6, 2021.”
