CONTRIBUTED BY THE
OFFICE OF STEVE MARSHALL
Attorney General Steve Marshall filed a lawsuit Tuesday to block the Biden administration’s Head Start mandate for program employees to vaccinate against COVID, and for pre-school pupils to wear face masks, or risk all federal funding.
Two of Alabama’s state agencies — the Alabama Department of Human Resources and the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education — would be affected by the mandate, as would all of Alabama’s Head Start teachers, staff, volunteers and students. The mandate requires all personnel to be “fully vaccinated” and wear masks at all times, while also requiring students ages two years and older to wear masks.
The lawsuit brought on behalf of the state of Alabama argues that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services lacks the legal authority to impose the mandate. It further notes that the mandate conflicts with Alabama’s vaccine passport law in that it requires state government entities to enforce it.
“The Biden administration clearly has no plans to back down from its errant pursuit of nationwide vaccination,” Marshall said. “Likewise, the state of Alabama has no plans to back down from its righteous pursuit of nationwide injunctions.”
The lawsuit was filed in the Western District of Louisiana. Marshall joined with Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry to bring this action, along with his colleagues from Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.
“The victims of these mandates will not be ‘the unvaccinated,’ as President Biden would like you to believe,” Marshall said. “Rather, the harm will be felt by the rural pre-school children who will be left with no place to go if their centers are shut down. A program that the federal government created is at risk of being destroyed by those who claim to care most about its participants.”
Marshall’s complaint and motion for preliminary injunction can be read at www.alabamaag.gov/Documents/news/Head%20State%20Complaint.pdf.
Marshall issued the following statement last week updating the people of Alabama on the status of the State’s legal challenges to President Biden’s vaccine mandates:
On Friday evening, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reinstated Biden’s private-employer vaccine mandate. Within hours of that decision, the State of Alabama — along with dozens of other state and private parties — filed an emergency application with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the Court to immediately halt the mandate until the Court fully hears the case and issues a final ruling.
At the same time, the U.S. Department of Justice has asked the Supreme Court to take up the healthcare-worker vaccine mandate. Previously, as announced on November 30, the State of Alabama was successful in winning a nationwide injunction against the mandate from a federal district court, which was upheld as to the plaintiff states by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
We are optimistic that the Supreme Court will act swiftly in both cases and agree with the State of Alabama that these vaccine mandates plainly exceed any power given to the federal government by the Congress or the Constitution.
While the private-employer and healthcare-worker vaccine mandates head to the Supreme Court, the State of Alabama has won another victory against the federal-contractor vaccine mandate. Over the weekend, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit denied the Department of Justice’s motion to reinstate the mandate pending appeal, leaving it blocked in Alabama and all other states that are parties in the case.
My office recognizes and fully appreciates the real-life challenges that employees and employers alike are experiencing given the shifting circumstances surrounding these mandates. Rest assured that my team and I will not let up until a full and final victory is secured against them for the people of Alabama.