(THE CENTER SQUARE) – An Ohio policy group that requested the first in the nation emergency stay of a federal workplace vaccine mandate now wants the Biden Administration to turn over communications related to the development of the mandate.
The Buckeye Institute, a Columbus-based think tank, filed a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on behalf of Phillips Manufacturing and Tower Co. and Sixarp LCC, demanding the White House produce all communications and records related to the initiation and development of President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate.
“The White House must include all communications related to its justification for the OSHA vaccine mandate in the record – as opposed to providing only the pretextual justification that OSHA manufactured in anticipation of this legal case,” said Robert Alt, president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute and lawyer for the legal challenge.
The motion claims the White House imposed the mandate through OSHA to circumvent limits on federal power. It asserts that the mandate had little to do with workplace safety but rather to increase individual vaccination rates.
OSHA temporarily suspended enforcement of the private sector COVID-19 vaccine mandate after the Fifth Circuit U.S. Courts of Appeals in New Orleans twice ordered a halt to implementation, citing “grave” constitutional issues.
States, businesses and other groups filed 34 lawsuits against the Biden administration’s mandate that private sector businesses with 100 or more employees require workers to be vaccinated against the coronavirus or face weekly testing. The policy also would impose nearly $14,000 in fines per employee for businesses caught letting their workers skirt the directive.
The mandate was scheduled to take effect on Jan. 4 before the Fifth Circuit ordered the stay.
The lawsuits were consolidated by the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation and sent to the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati after a lottery.
The Biden Administration says the mandate is necessary to protect workers and end the pandemic.
