By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall (R) filed a lawsuit on Friday to block the federal-contractor vaccine mandate illegally decreed by President Joe Biden (D).
“Today, I filed suit to halt President Biden’s lawless and authoritarian federal-contractor vaccine mandate, which is a contemptible infringement upon individual liberty, federalism, and the separation of powers,” Marshall said in a statement released by his office. “Biden has again demonstrated open disdain for the rule of law in seizing power Congress never gave him. And all to impose a mandate that threatens to further wreck our economy and people’s lives by denying countless workers the ability to feed their families simply for daring to oppose this get-jabbed-or-get-fired dictate.
“Within the last ten days, the Biden administration informed a number of Alabama state agencies and institutions that they are subject to his federal-contractor vaccine mandate and must, therefore, force their employees to be vaccinated,” Marshall continued. “This order was strategically designed with an unreasonable timetable to exert maximum coercive pressure on states—such that they are faced with either vaccinating a large percentage of their public and private workforces in a matter of weeks, or else they are barred from contracting with the federal government.”
The President’s executive order says those employees must be fully vaccinated by December 8 unless they have an approved medical, disability, or religious exemption. Thousands of Alabamians have been told by their employers that they must take the COVID-19 vaccine or they will be fired. This includes the three campuses of the University of Alabama system and Auburn University. Since the Universities take federal contracts, the entire workforce of the Universities, whether their duties involve federal contracts or not, is subject to the order.
Alabama was joined in the suit by Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia. The suit was filed in federal district court in Georgia.
In addition to the Alabama suit, the attorneys general from Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming signed on to a different lawsuit, which was filed in a federal district court in Missouri.
Texas also sued individually on Friday.
The states asked federal judges to block Biden’s requirement that all employees of federal contractors be vaccinated against the coronavirus, arguing that the mandate violates federal procurement law and is an overreach of federal power.
“I will vigorously oppose this deceitful attempt by Biden to strong-arm the State of Alabama and its people,'' Marshall said. "In just nine months of this administration, we’ve seen repeated, unprecedented attempts from Biden to expand government control over Americans and limit our personal freedoms. I and my fellow state attorneys general have consistently fought this creeping authoritarianism in court. And I look forward to, yet again, holding Biden accountable and stopping this illegal federal mandate for all federal contractors and their employees.”
The mandates are not a law passed by Congress, but are instead a series of executive orders that President Biden issued.
The lawsuit Marshall and the attorneys general of Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia can be read here.
