November 30, 2021 |
A federal judge Monday blocked Joe Biden’s mandate forcing healthcare workers in Wyoming and nine other states to choose between the coronavirus jab or their job. In ordering the preliminary injunction, the Eighth Circuit Court in St. Louis said that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid have no authority from Congress to enact the vaccine mandate for providers participating in the two federal health care programs. The injunction affects only the 10 states that sued. Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon welcomed the decision.
Governor Gordon said in a statement that the federal mandate would only worsen the staffing challenges healthcare facilities in the state already face. The governor added, “Healthcare employees should not be forced to choose between vaccination and termination.”
Appearing on Bigfoot 99 Tuesday morning, the governor while he himself has received the Covid shot he opposes the Biden administration’s mandate on health care workers because it amounts “coercion,” forcing employers require the shot for lose federal revenues through CMS.
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt took the lead in filing the lawsuit. Following the ruling, Schmitt said the Biden administration has no statutory authority to force the experimental gene therapy drug on workers who don’t want it. Schmitt said the mandate would result in the loss of health care in rural states as workers refuse to submit to the injection.
A local hospital administrator here told Bigfoot 99 recently that their facility felt compelled to follow the mandate because of the threat of losing federal reimbursements for providing care. Medicare and Medicaid payments are often 50 percent or more of a hospital’s revenue.
The preliminary injunction applies to the coalition of states that filed the lawsuit, including Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.
The case was filed in the U.S. District Court of Missouri, Eastern Division. U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp ordered the injunction, which applies only to the ten states involved which filed the lawsuit. The White House has the option to appeal the decision before the Eighth Circuit.
The Missouri Attorney General called the ruling “significant” and said he expects the Department of Justice to appeal the ruling and expects this case to go to the Supreme Court.
The Wall Street Journal reports that up to 30 percent of hospital workers have not submitted to the jab ahead of the January 4th deadline.
In his order handing down the injunction, the judge wrote that the plaintiff states are “likely to succeed in their argument that Congress has not provided CMS the authority to enact the regulations at issue here.” The nature and breadth of the CMS mandate, the judge wrote, is outside the authorization the agency has from Congress to administrate Medicare and Medicaid for the elderly, disabled and poor.
Three similar lawsuits affecting health care workers are pending in federal courts, involving more than half of the 50 states.
