TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Dec 2, 2021

A federal judge in Kentucky this week blocked the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for federal contractors in three states: Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee, Action News 5 reports. The ruling comes in response to a suit filed by the attorneys general in each state. U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove of the Eastern District of Kentucky said the mandate exceeded the president’s authority. Yesterday, the White House said the Justice Department "will vigorously defend" the government’s authority to promote its vaccine requirement in courts that have blocked its various mandates. But with a nod to the reality of the current situation, the White House told federal agencies they can delay punishing federal workers who failed to comply with a Nov. 22 vaccination deadline, Reuters reports. Also this week, a district court judge in Louisiana issued a nationwide injunction against the administration's vaccine mandate for health workers, the second judge to block that rule this week.