Mississippi part of the 14 state lawsuit challenging the federal mandates.
On Tuesday afternoon, Judge Terry Doughty in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana granted a motion for preliminary injunction in a case filed by Mississippi and 13 other states challenging President Joe Biden’s federal COVID vaccine mandate on healthcare workers. The Biden Administration has said it has the authority to impose this mandate since hospital systems received federal funds through Medicaid and Medicare.
Judge Doughty’s order temporarily halts the Biden mandate nationwide, expanding on an order earlier this week a U.S. District Judge in Missouri granting a halt in ten other states who filed for relief.
In granting the injunction in the Mississippi-related case, Judge Doughty outlined a timeline of actions on behalf of the Biden Administration, which call into question the emergency nature of the federal mandates, and restated the case made by the states. He then offers his conclusion.
“If the separation of powers meant anything to the Constitutional framers, it meant that the three necessary ingredients to deprive a person of liberty or property – the power to make rules, to enforce them, and to judge their violations – could never fall into the same hands,” Judge Doughty writes. “If the Executive branch is allowed to usurp the power of the Legislative branch to make laws, two of the three powers conferred by the Constitution would be in the same hands. If human nature and history teach anything, it is that civil liberties face grave risks when governments proclaim indefinite states of emergency.”
The judge notes that the case will ultimately be decided by a higher court but maintains that it is important to preserve the status quo in this case, saying, “The liberty interests of the unvaccinated requires nothing less.”
In granting the injunction, Judge Doughty says it will remain in effect pending the final resolution of this case, or until further orders from this Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, or the United States Supreme Court.
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves welcomed the news, tweeting, “These vaccines work, but stopping lawless mandates is a big WIN for freedom!”
Big news for health care workers impacted by the Biden-CMS vaccine mandates. In response to the lawsuit that Mississippi filed, the courts have put a preliminary STOP to its enforcement nationwide. These vaccines work, but stopping lawless mandates is a big WIN for freedom!
— Governor Tate Reeves (@tatereeves) November 30, 2021
Attorney General Lynn Fitch called it a “great win for our healthcare heroes!”
The U.S. District Court has issued an injunction in our case against the Biden Vaccine Mandate on healthcare workers. This is a great win for our healthcare heroes! pic.twitter.com/ToA0KwTbJA
— Lynn Fitch (@LynnFitchAG) November 30, 2021
Frank Corder
