(, The Center Square) Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich asked the U.S. District Court in Arizona for a temporary restraining order and nationwide preliminary injunction against the Biden Administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
“The COVID-19 vaccine mandate is one of the greatest infringements upon individual liberty, federalism, and the separation of powers by any administration in our country’s history,” Brnovich said in a news release Friday.
President Joe Biden announced an emergency rule mandating vaccinations for all private companies with more than 100 employees on Sept. 9.
“This is not about freedom or personal choice,” Biden said in a press conference. “It’s about protecting yourself and those around you.”
On Sept. 14, Brnovich became the first U.S. attorney general to file a lawsuit against the mandates, arguing they violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution by allowing unvaccinated migrants to enter the United States.
Brnovich’s Friday amended complaint expanded his lawsuit against the administration by adding claims against the federal contractor and federal employee requirements.
He said the mandates violate the constitutional rights of federal employees, contractors, and subcontractors, as well as individuals’ statutory right to refuse vaccines available under Emergency Use Authorizations from the Food and Drug Administration.
The Attorney General’s office cited an Engineering New-Record report predicting more than 40% of the workforce “…will quit and go to work for another contractor that does not have such a mandate.” This substantial change in the workforce will damage the economy, the office said.
Two dozen Republican attorneys general have threatened to file against the mandate, calling the plan “disastrous and counterproductive” in a letter to Biden.
“Mr. President, your vaccination mandate represents not only a threat to individual liberty, but a public health disaster that will displace vulnerable workers and exacerbate a nationwide hospital staffing crisis, with severe consequences for all Americans,” the attorneys general wrote.
