DOJ asks Supreme Court to uphold vaccine mandate
The rule requires all healthcare workers in facilities that participate in the Medicare and Medicaid program to get vaccinated.
Photo: Longhua Liao/Getty Images
The Department of Justice has asked the Supreme Court to uphold the Biden Administration's vaccine mandate by requesting a stay on a federal court order.
DOJ Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar filed the request Thursday to allow the vaccine rule issued by Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to proceed. The rule, which goes into effect in January, requires all healthcare workers in facilities that participate in the Medicare and Medicaid program to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
"This application seeks a stay of that injunction to allow the Secretary's urgently needed health and safety measure to take effect before the winter spike in COVID19 cases worsens further," Prelogar said in the filing.
In the weeks since Secretary Becerra issued the requirement, new COVID-19 cases have increased by more than 60%, to nearly 120,000 per day, Prelogar said. And the highly transmissible Omicron variant, which emerged after the issuance of the rule, threatens to drive up case rates and risks to Medicare and Medicaid patients even higher, she said.
"In response to an unprecedented pandemic that has killed 800,000 Americans, the Secretary of Health and Human Services exercised his express statutory authority to protect the health and safety of Medicare and Medicaid patients by requiring healthcare facilities that choose to participate in those programs to ensure that their staff are vaccinated (subject to medical and religious exemptions)," Prelogar said in the filing.
Arguments are ultimately expected to be heard by the Supreme Court.
WHY THIS MATTERS
The vaccine mandate has been challenged in two separate lawsuits by a total of 24 states.
On Nov. 12, plaintiff states Missouri, Nebraska, Arkansas, Kansas, Iowa, Wyoming, Alaska, South Dakota, North Dakota and New Hampshire filed a request for a preliminary injunction to stop the federal government from imposing the mandate. They were successful and are seeking a permanent injunction.
The Western District of Louisiana District Court also sided with states that were against the vaccine mandate. These states included Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia. The district court had ordered a nationwide injunction but the 5th Circuit Court of Appeal limited the injunction to the original 14 states.
Two other vaccine policies aimed at federal contractors and companies with 100 or more employees are being challenged in the courts.
In a lawsuit filed by Louisiana, Indiana and Mississippi, U.S. Western District of Louisiana Senior Judge Dee Drell on Dec. 15 issued separate orders on the federal contractors mandate. Drell denied a preliminary injunction against the federal government from enforcing the vaccine mandate with private contractors, but granted a preliminary injunction to the vaccine mandate, limited to contracts, grants or other agreements between the states and the national government.
"'This is not a case about whether vaccines are effective. They are. Nor is this a case about whether the government, at some level, and in some circumstances, can require citizens to obtain vaccines. It can,'" Drell said, quoting Judge Van Tatenhoven of the Eastern District of Kentucky. The concern is the limit of the execution of that authority to impose vaccines, Drell said.
THE LARGER TREND
President Joe Biden announced the vaccine mandate in September. On Nov. 4, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services required all healthcare workers in facilities that accepted Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement to be fully vaccinated by Jan. 4.
Twitter: @SusanJMorse
Email the writer: susan.morse@himssmedia.com
