Some two dozen GOP attorneys general said this week they would take legal action if the Biden White House follows through on its threat to mandate vaccines for 100 million Americans.
Now, Arizona has become the first state to officially sue the Biden administration over its plan for mandates.
Arizona has filed a legal challenge to the federal requirements. Mark Brnovich, Arizona’s attorney general, said the Biden plan to force vaccines “is an infringement on individual liberties.”
Biden told the nation about his requirement in an address on September 9.
Many Republicans, conservatives, libertarians, and others immediately protested the clear and present government overreach.
Biden said in part during his address, “My message to unvaccinated Americans is this: What more is there to wait for? We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin.”
As many outlets, including MSN, reported this week, “The GOP prosecutors chastised Biden for the proposed measure, which would see a federal vaccine requirement imposed for private-sector employees, health care workers and federal contractors. The requirement, announced earlier this month, is being enacted through a rule from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) as part of an effort to inoculate Americans from the more deadly Delta variant.”
“Your plan is disastrous and counterproductive,” the prosecutors, led by Attorney General Alan Wilson of South Carolina, wrote in a letter sent to Biden. “If your Administration does not alter its course, the undersigned state Attorneys General will seek every available legal option to hold you accountable and uphold the rule of law.”
The OSHA rule, according to reports, covers nearly two-thirds of the private sector workforce.
It would last for six months. Any employers who don’t comply could be fined nearly $14,000 per instance.
Gov. Henry McMaster of South Carolina wrote on Twitter that his state would fight to “the gates of hell to protect the liberty and livelihood of every South Carolinian.”
Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota also says she will fight the mandates. “Last week, President Joe Biden claimed ‘this is not about freedom or personal choice’ regarding COVID-19 vaccinations,” she wrote in an op-ed for USA Today. “The value of personal responsibility far outweighs government mandates, especially as we learn more about COVID-19, the vaccine and therapeutic treatment options. The Constitution grants public health authority to the sates,” she added.
Noem also wrote, “We will not be mandating COVID-19 vaccinations in South Dakota. The Biden administration has no business forcing vaccinations on the American people through executive decree or rule. Biden has no constitutional authority to do so.”
In another development, a California sheriff has said he will not take part in enforcing the vaccine mandates nor will he allow his department to do so.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said in a statement that as a duly elected sheriff who has pledged to uphold the Constitution, “It is my responsibility to protect the public from the criminal element, as well as being the last line of defense from tyrannical government overreach. The government has no authority to mandate your health choices. As your Sheriff, I have an obligation to guard your liberty and freedom.”
And in additional related news, rapper Nicki Minaj challenged the vaccine mandates—and afterward, said she’d been put “in Twitter hell” for simply suggesting that people ask questions about the vaccine before they take it.
And now, as a follow-up to that, she has told her followers she’s been invited to the White House to discuss the issue of vaccine mandates.
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—By CNJ Staff