The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted an emergency stay of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration order requiring those workers to be vaccinated by Jan. 4 or face mask requirements and weekly tests on Nov. 6. Attorneys for the Justice and Labor departments responded Monday, claiming that delaying the mandate's implementation will only prolong the COVID-19 pandemic and "cost dozens, if not hundreds, of lives per day."
The appeals court, however, rejected that argument on Friday. The stay, according to Metairie Judge Kurt Engelhardt, is "firmly in the public interest."
“From economic uncertainty to workplace strife, the mere specter of the mandate has contributed to untold economic upheaval in recent months,” Engelhardt wrote.
Engelhardt, who was nominated to the court by President Donald Trump, was joined in the opinion by judges Edith Jones of Houston, a Ronald Reagan nominee, and Kyle Duncan of Baton Rouge, a Trump nominee.
Following the publication of OSHA's rules on November 4, at least 27 states filed legal challenges in at least six federal appeals courts. In court filings on Monday, the federal government stated that the cases should be consolidated and that one of the circuit courts where a legal challenge has been filed should be chosen at random to hear it on Nov. 16.
Attorneys for the administration argue that there is no reason to keep the vaccine mandate on hold while the court where the cases ultimately land is still unknown.