'Pandemic Crisis'? Biden Won't Reinstate Jab Mandate For Fed Workers, But CONTINUES It For Truckers

P. Gardner Goldsmith | April 10, 2022
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Despite the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruling (2-1) Thursday reinstating Joe Biden’s September 9 Executive Order mandating federal employees accept an mRNA jab as a condition of continued employment, el Presidente says he won’t enforce the order...right now.

The ruling overturns a January injunction by U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey Brown of the Southern U.S. District of Texas, who had stated in his opinion:

(T)he Supreme Court has expressly held that a COVID-19 vaccine mandate is not an employment regulation. And that means the President was without statutory authority to issue the federal worker mandate.

But The Washington Post’s Eric Yoder reports that this new panel ruling of the Fifth Circuit focused solely on administrative procedures regarding when federal employees can file to block enforcement of a federal rule – a rule that Biden was ready to enforce a couple months ago, but which he’s not going to enforce (right now).

The White House’s message came after a ruling by a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to restore President Biden’s executive order. The court majority held that the Civil Service Reform Act, the general body of laws governing the 2.1 million executive branch workers, requires that any challenge to the order go through the government’s internal appeals channels, and not directly into the courts.

Specifically, the majority on the panel claimed that a federal employee has to have been “disciplined” before he or she can ask for a remedy.

Under that law, the Merit Systems Protection Board — which acts much like an internal court system for federal employees — ‘can order reinstatement and backpay to any nonexempt plaintiffs who are disciplined for refusing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.’ Employees also could ask a separate agency, the Office of Special Counsel, to bring a case before the merit board by arguing that the order violates civil service protections, it added.

If no such remedy is provided, THEN, said the majority in the new ruling, the plaintiff can go to court.

So, where do we stand, jurisprudentially, when it comes to these “mandates” in their various areas of federal command-and-control?

As John Corrigan writes for HCA Mag, although the Supreme Court has blocked Biden’s jab mandate on private businesses with 100 or more employees, the new ruling stands beside the 5-4 decision okaying a jab mandate for healthcare workers receiving funds through Medicare and Medicaid.

As of last month, health care providers at facilities that participate in Medicare and Medicaid must ensure their employees are fully vaccinated or have been granted approved medical or religious exemptions. Unlike the proposed private employer mandate, the CMS mandate doesn’t allow testing options in lieu of vaccination.

The new ruling stands in opposition to a December ruling by US District Judge Stan Baker, of Georgia, that blocked enforcement of Biden’s mandate on federal contractors.

And, though two separate cases have seen temporary, plaintiff-distinct, blocks to punishment over Biden’s mandate for certain members of the Navy and select members of the Air Force, the administration’s continued overall position is that it can institute the mandates on anyone tied to the federal government.

Related: As Lockdown Politicians Gaslight, Many Americans See Trucker Demonstrations As Freedom Movements | MRCTV

And Biden continues to enforce his supply-chain snapping, hardship-inducing jab mandate for truckers and shippers entering the US.

It sure seems as if the Bidenistas think these mandates are really, really important.

So, if he’s so concerned about this so-called “pandemic” that he is continuing to push for these mandates, and enforcing them on private truckers and shippers who are essential for bringing food, raw materials, oil, and natural gas to us consumers, why is Biden choosing not to enforce the mandate on federal employees, given this Thursday ruling of the Fifth Circuit?

As Yoder notes for the WaPo:

The White House told federal agencies Thursday to hold off on reinstating a coronavirus vaccination mandate for millions of employees, hours after an appeals court rejected an earlier injunction that had blocked the executive order.

One would think that, if this so-called “pandemic” were so pressing an issue that the administration would burn millions of dollars in court to hold onto the mandates, Biden and his gang of mask-on-mask-off, social-distance-but-not-really COVID alarmist-hypocrites would pursue enforcement with utter gangland gusto. Truckers and shippers sure do have to conform, and that’s harming everyone who is struggling against price increases. 

Could it be that Biden doesn’t want to upset the federal workers? Is it possible that we won’t hear a lot of talk about a federal employee jab mandate until, oh… after the midterm elections in November?

Could be. After all, most of us know that this virus, with a survival rate of nearly 100 percent across all quintiles combined, waits many months before targeting federal employees who get our tax money.

But it attacks truckers, who work mainly alone, trying to keep our economy running.

Looks like we have some mental treats on which to chew for a while, as Biden continues his “rules for thee and not for me” approach.

Goodness knows, we don’t have as much real food.

Related: The Biden-Buttigieg Economic Blockade of America Continues | MRCTV

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