Is Biden’s Vaccine Mandate Constitutional?

             The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday is President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate that he announced last week. The order came from the Department of Labor through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). As promised, a group of states filed a federal lawsuit to stop it, and a federal appeals court suspended the requirement.

A panel of three judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued the suspension, stating that there was “cause to believe there are grave statutory and constitutional issues with the mandate.” The purpose for the staying the order was to give the court time to study it more deeply. 

The panel stopped the governmental order temporarily, but it did not rule on the merits of the policy. “The court gave the Justice Department until 5 p.m. Monday to respond to the challenger’s request for a more permanent halt to the mandate.” Of course, the U.S. Department of Labor believes that it has legal authority to issue the mandate for the safety of Americans.