The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals declined Friday to lift its stay on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s vaccine mandate for businesses with 100 or more workers, following a Nov. 6 ruling by a three-judge panel of the same court that temporarily blocked the requirement.
In a response to the earlier ruling, the Biden administration asserted in a response that, contrary to the court ruling, the U.S. government maintains the right to impose rules for the health and welfare of citizens in requiring affected workers to be fully vaccinated by Jan. 4 or face mask requirements and weekly tests.
“The Department of Labor has a responsibility to keep workers safe and the legal authority to do so,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at the time.
The New Orleans-based court ruled Friday that the OSHA rule does not meet the “clear danger” threshold to regulate the workplace, and “ordered that OSHA take no steps to implement or enforce the mandate until further court order,” according to court records.
“The stay is firmly in the public interest,” Circuit Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt wrote Friday. “From economic uncertainty to workplace strife, the mere specter of the mandate has contributed to untold economic upheaval in recent months.”
