A federal appeals court has lifted an injunction on President Joe Biden’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate for government workers, arguing a lower court did not have legal authority to bar the White House order.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals revived the mandate in a 2-1 vote on Thursday, vacating a previous ruling made in January which determined the rule exceeded the president’s authority.
Citing the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA) – which was passed to resolve disputes between the government and federal workers – Judges James Stewart and Carl Stewart said the lower court lacked jurisdiction to ban the vaccination requirement, arguing that plaintiffs had other means of remedy short of a lawsuit. Instead, they could have challenged the mandate through federal agencies’ own internal procedures, the judges said.