A federal judge on Nov. 29 halted the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers, although the ruling only applies to 10 states.
The mandate, promulgated earlier this month by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), required approximately 17 million workers to get a jab or face termination.
But CMS lacks the authority to impose such a broad mandate, U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp, a Trump appointee, ruled.
“Plaintiffs are likely to succeed in their argument that Congress has not provided CMS the authority to enact the regulation at issue here,” Schelp wrote in a 32-page ruling that granted a request for a preliminary injunction.
“Congress did not clearly authorize CMS to enact this politically and economically vast, federalism-altering, and boundary-pushing mandate, which Supreme Court precedent requires.”
The request came from Missouri and nine other states, which asserted that the health care worker mandate was unlawful in part because it was arbitrary and capricious, which is prohibited by the Administrative Procedure Act.
Schelp repeatedly agreed with the plaintiffs, finding that the mandate was arbitrary and capricious for several reasons, including the CMS “lack[ing] evidence showing that vaccination status has a direct impact on spreading COVID in the mandate’s covered healthcare facilities.”
Read More: Judge Blocks Biden Administration’s COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate for Health Care Workers
