President Joe Biden speaks about Covid-19 vaccinations in Elk Grove Village, Ill., on Oct. 7, 2021. | Susan Walsh, File/AP Photo
03/08/2022 01:09 PM EST
The Biden administration urged a circuit court panel Tuesday to revive the Covid-19 vaccination mandate for federal employees put on hold by a lower court judge earlier this year.
“This is not something that’s outside the mainstream,” Justice Department attorney Charles Scarborough told members of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The hearing details: Scarborough told the New Orleans-based court that the president’s directive was issued in his capacity as the head of the government workforce, and that the job market acts as an appropriate check on his actions.
“The president is acting as an employer competing with other employers,” Scarborough said. “That is a significant limiting principle.”
He also argued that the need for the mandate has only intensified as more employees are transitioning back to working in offices as opposed to their homes.
“Widespread vaccination is really the foundation for all the plans to return to physical workspaces, which are now underway,” he said.
However, attorney Trent McCotter, arguing on behalf of the group of federal workers who brought the legal challenge, said that Biden’s actions lack precedent and are beyond his unilateral authority.
“They’re hanging on the thinnest of reeds,” he said.
“What we really have is a general health regulation. It’s not regulating...
Ukrainian General Staff spokesperson Andriy Kovalov dismissed Russian military chief Valery Gerasimov's claims of advances toward Kramatorsk and Zaporizhzhia and the capture of several settlements...