WASHINGTON, DC – Last night, America First Legal (AFL) filed an amicus brief in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in a case involving the Biden Administration’s unlawful and unconstitutional federal employee vaccine mandate. The brief explains that the President does not have the authority–constitutional or otherwise–to declare that vaccination is a condition of federal employment.
AFL has been at the forefront of the fight against Biden’s executive overreach on several fronts, including when it comes to forced vaccination for federal employees. In the past several months, AFL filed suit on behalf of two federal civilian employees—an engineer with the Department of Defense and an Assistant United States Attorney with the Department of Justice—in separate cases challenging the federal government’s authority to impose this mandate. Last month, AFL also launched a toolkit to provide federal employees with basic knowledge about how to protect their jobs and their families if they choose not to take the COVID-19 vaccine.
In this brief–filed in support of a group of federal employees who obtained an injunction against the vaccine mandate, an injunction that the Biden Administration has asked the Fifth Circuit to stay–AFL outlined the following:
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The statutes cited in Executive Order 14,043 do not authorize the vaccine mandate.
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Congress has not given implicit authority to the executive branch to issue a sweeping mandate of this nature.
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The Constitution does not inherently give the President this power
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Historical uses of the cited statutes do not show a “longstanding practice” of the government asserting or using such authority. In fact, the historic use of these authorities shows routine, bureaucratic updates, not dictatorial fiats.
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The recent cases cited by the government from other cases challenging the vaccine mandate are irrelevant to the facts of this case.
AFL is proud to stand with all federal employees who are being held victim to Biden’s unconstitutional executive overreach, and as long as these draconian mandates remain in place, AFL will continue to fight for the liberties and medical freedom of all Americans.
Statement from America First Legal Vice-President and General Counsel Gene Hamilton:
“This Administration has shown a repeated willful disregard for the rule of law with an ‘act now and let the courts overturn us later if they dare’ attitude. We saw it with the eviction moratorium, they are doing it with immigration, and we see it again here. The President does not have the authority to require federal employees to be vaccinated, and AFL has provided the Court with a roadmap explaining why,” Gene Hamilton said.
Read the Amicus Brief here.
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