Federal attorneys for the Biden administration filed a document Friday evening requesting the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeal to reject a potential hold on the OSHA rule that would mandate employees of businesses of 100 or more people to receive the COVID-19 vaccine or be regularly tested and forced to wear a mask.The hold on the employee vaccine rule was requested by Florida, Alabama, and Georgia. The states contend the rule, established under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), oversteps its authority and would result in thousands of people losing their jobs.
Florida requested the action via Florida’s Attorney General, Ashley Moody.However, in the 26-page document filed on Friday and reported by The News Service of Florida, federal attorneys contended that the rule will “save thousands of lives,” and wrote, “OSHA properly determined that employees gather in one place and interact, thus risking workplace transmission of a highly contagious virus that spreads – and creates grave danger – inside the workplace.”While the hold requested by Florida, Alabama, and Georgia is still awaiting a ruling, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals – which hears cases from Louisiana, Mississippi – issued a ruling Friday that reaffirmed a stay on the OSHA rule that was previously imposed.In the motion filed by Moody on Monday, she argued, “The ’emergency temporary standard’ OSHA issued is neither a workplace standard nor is it a response to an emergency.” Moody added, “It is, rather, a backdoor attempt to dictate the personal health decisions of millions of ordinary Americans, many of whom have deeply personal reasons to decline to be vaccinated.”
Because the OSHA rule has sparked multiple challenges across 11 federal appellate circuit courts, attorneys from the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Labor argued there is no need to rule immediately on the stay request by Florida, Georgia and Alabama. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation plans to combine all the cases into one circuit.
“The court chosen to adjudicate these matters will have sufficient time to rule on any preliminary motions,” the federal attorneys wrote. “To conserve judicial resources and avoid trenching upon the authority of another court that may receive the case, this (11th Circuit) court should decline to act in this current posture.”
Given that the OSHA rule is scheduled to take effect on January 4th – a week before the 2022 legislative session in Florida is set to begin – Governor DeSantis has called for a special session to begin Monday to discuss the OSHA rule and other steps needed in order to prevent vaccine and mask mandates.
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Casey Owens is a contributing writer for The Florida Capital Star. Follow him on Twitter at @cowensreports. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Ashley Moody” by Florida Attorney General Office. Background Photo “Construction Workers” by Brisbane City Council. CC BY 2.0.
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