The Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for companies with over 100 employees through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is expected to be put in place soon, and Republican governors around the country are prepared to take legal action against the measure.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made it clear that his state will be suing the administration for the invasive policy.
“I think that the mandate is going to lose in court,” he said at a news conference Thursday. According to Fox News, a lawsuit from the state would be filed through the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“No one should lose their job over these shots. I think we want to protect people’s jobs,” DeSantis said. “These are folks that have been working throughout this whole time, they were put in situations where they were exposing themselves to risk knowingly to help others, and we did that, and we considered them heroes just a year ago.
“Now, you’re gonna let them go by the wayside?”
In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott took preventive action by signing an executive order banning a requirement for vaccines by any person or group in the public or private sector.
“No entity in Texas can compel receipt of a COVID-19 vaccine by any individual, including an employee or a consumer, who objects to such vaccination for any reason of personal conscience, based on a religious belief, or for medical reasons, including prior recovery from COVID-19,” the order states, directly bucking both President Joe Biden and companies that want to mandate the coronavirus vaccine.
A criticism of Abbott’s order is that is interferes with the freedom of private businesses to determine health guidelines for their employees, which explains why many Republican governors are not considering that level of action.
Regardless, there is almost uniform consensus from conservative state leaders that the government should not be forcing the vaccine onto the public through employers.
An example of the nuanced difference between Abbott’s approach and other governors was articulated in Republican Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt’s remarks earlier this week about the imminent mandate.
“This action is not just federal overreach, it’s unconstitutional,” Stitt said. “I’ve talked this over with Attorney General John O’Connor, and I know he’s on our side. He’s ready to take President Biden to court the second the rules are made public.”
“I don’t believe it’s the government’s job to dictate policies to private companies. Just as I believe Joe Biden can’t tell businesses they have to mandate a vaccine, I don’t believe the government should tell a company they can’t. Businesses should have the freedom to make decisions based on their circumstances. When the government starts to pick winners and losers, we are headed down a slippery slope.”
While the debate over how far bans on vaccine mandates will rage on, one thing is being made perfectly clear by Republicans: They will fight back against the Biden administration’s overreach.
The argument that this is not truly a vaccine mandate because companies also have the option to conduct weekly tests does not hold much weight.
It’s a major hassle to require weekly testing, especially at large companies, so many will likely take the easy way out and lay off employees that reject the shot.
As Stitt mentioned, this is not about the effectiveness of the vaccine or whether somebody “should” get the shot. It’s about the principle.
It is possible for someone to be vaccinated and also understand that it is a personal health decision, but the divisive nature of left-wing politicians has encouraged a caste system based on vaccination status.
