Biden
Arizona Takes Offensive and Sues Biden Admin Over Covid-19 Vaccine Mandate
On Tuesday, Arizona sued President Joe Biden’s administration over his sweeping vaccine mandates that apply to federal employees and private companies employing more than 100 people. This serves as the first lawsuit against a policy that Republicans deem as a form of federal overreach.
In a statement, Attorney General Mark Brnovich said: “The federal government cannot force people to get the COVID-19 vaccine. The Biden Administration is once again flouting our laws and precedents to push their radical agenda.”
Arizona Deems Vaccine Mandate as Unconstitutional
Last week, Biden announced the orders, requiring federal employees and private-sector workers in companies with over 100 employees to get their vaccinations or undergo weekly COVID testing. This comes as part of an action plan to tackle the ongoing pandemic.
The mandate is expected to apply to up to 100 million Americans in many different sectors, and it is projected to impact the private sector directly.
To illustrate this specifically, Arizona’s lawsuit compares the vaccine mandates with the lack of mandates connected to the immigration crisis at the southern border. In July alone, border officials said they encountered 212,000 illegal immigrants. While around 40% of these encounters have resulted in expulsion, many others have been released into the country, leading to many Americans being concerned about the risk of possible COVID spread.
Additionally, the lawsuit claims that the mandate goes against the Equal Protection Clause as it favors migrants coming to the U.S. illegally instead of American citizens.
In part, the brief mentioned: “Although the precise contours of the federal vaccination mandates are not yet clear, the violation of the Equal Protection Clause is already evident and egregious … In a nutshell: unauthorized aliens will not be subject to any vaccination requirements even when released directly into the United States (where most will remain), while roughly a hundred million U.S. citizens will be subject to unprecedented vaccination requirements.”
“This reflects an unmistakable — and unconstitutional — brand of favoritism in favor of unauthorized aliens,” it added.
Following the filing of the Arizona lawsuit, other Republican states have mentioned that they intend to file their own suits against the administration as well.
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