A Texas judge on Friday overturned a nationwide order by US President Joe Biden that all federal government employees be vaccinated against Covid-19.
Judge Jeffrey Brown, appointed by former President Donald Trump, explained in a statement that this case is not about whether people should be immunized against Covid-19, as “the court believes they should”, nor about the prerogatives of the federal government to demand that its workers be vaccinated.
“Rather, it’s about whether the president can, all at once and without the participation of Congress, require that millions of federal employees undergo a medical procedure as a condition of their employment,” Brown wrote.
In September of last year, Biden ordered mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations for all federal government employees, which affected 2.1 million employees who until then had the option of not getting vaccinated if they were tested for Covid-19. regularly.
In the judge’s opinion, the US president’s order, “in the current state of the law, as recently expressed by the Supreme Court, goes too far.”
In this case, Brown is referring to last week’s ruling by the nation’s highest court, which overturned Biden’s order that required vaccinations or negative weekly Covid-19 test results for workers at all companies that had 100 or more employees. .
However, the Supreme Court gave its approval to another order by the president to vaccinate the staff of more than 50,000 US health facilities, which receive federal subsidies from Medicare and Medicaid programs and in which about 17 million people work.
Asked about the Texas judge’s decision, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki noted at her daily news conference that a “remarkable” 98% of federal employees are already immunized. “We rely on our legal authority here,” Psaki declared.
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