Texas to challenge constitutionality of Biden administration’s new

Texas challenged the Biden administration on Friday over its Covid vaccine mandate for private businesses, arguing that the new federal requirements are unconstitutional.

State Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a petition for review with the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the validity of the administration’s mandate. Paxton said he would soon file a motion asking the court to halt the mandate.

Paxton, in a statement, called the vaccine mandate “a breathtaking abuse of federal power” that is “flatly unconstitutional.” He argued the mandate goes beyond the “limited power and specific responsibilities” of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which announced the new workplace regulations earlier this week.

The attorney generals of Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Utah joined the petition, in addition to several companies.

OSHA, which polices workplace safety for the Labor Department, developed the vaccine mandate under emergency authority that allows the agency to shortcut the normal process to issue new worker safety standards, which often takes years.

OSHA can use its emergency authority if the Labor secretary determines workers face a grave danger from a new hazard, and an emergency standard is necessary to protect them.

“A virus that has killed more than 745,000 Americans with more than 70,000 new cases per day currently is clearly a health hazard that poses a grave danger to workers,” Labor Department Solicitor Seema Nanda said during a press briefing Thursday.

The Biden administration says its vaccine mandate will overturn any state laws that prevent companies from implementing the new federal requirements.

Nanda said the national mandate preempts state laws on Covid-19 vaccines, masks and testing unless those laws are part of a federally approved worker safety plan that’s at least as effective as the federal requirements.

“The question that we always have and that we ask to the Republicans is: Why are they getting in the way?  Why are they getting in the way of trying to protect and save lives? That’s all we’re trying to do,” White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Thursday.

The vaccine mandate, which applies to businesses with 100 or more employees, took effect Friday after publication in the Federal Register.

The mandate requires businesses to ensure their employees have received their vaccine shots by Jan. 4, or submit a negative Covid test at least once a week. Unvaccinated workers have to start wearing masks indoors by Dec. 5. The mandates covers 84 million private sector employees.