U.S. District Court Judge Rules Against Mandates For Federal Contractors

US Judge Rules Against Mandate for Federal Contractors

Daria Bedenko

In September, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order whereby all federal government contractors and subcontractors have to comply with workplace safety guidelines developed by a federal task force requiring them to be fully vaccinated by 8 December, with the deadline then moved to 18 January.

A US District Court judge in Georgia blocked the Biden administration's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors and subcontractors for the duration of the litigation, Reuters reported, citing a court order.

The mandate was to go into effect on 4 January. It has already faced several legal challenges brought forward by states such as Arizona, Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, and Georgia.

On Tuesday, a federal judge in Kentucky issued a preliminary injunction barring enforcement of the vaccine requirement for contractors in Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee in the wake of the lawsuit brought by the three states.

Biden's executive order, which was signed back in September, required contractors and subcontractors for the federal government to be fully vaccinated in compliance with workplace safety guidelines developed by the federal task force.

Under these guidelines, employees were obliged to be fully vaccinated by 8 December, with the deadline later moved to 18 January.

It was estimated that the federal vaccination requirement would apply to roughly a quarter of the American workforce and affect industrial titans such as Lockheed Martin Corp., Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc.‘s Google, and General Motors Co. as they do business with the federal government.

Apart from obliging federal contractors to get inoculated against COVID-19, the Biden administration also hoped to require private-sector companies and healthcare workers to be vaccinated.