A U.S. appeals court on Monday said the White House could not require federal contractors to ensure that their workers are vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of government contracts, Reuters reported. The U.S. government has contracts with thousands of companies, and courts have said the issue could affect up to 20% of U.S. workers. A panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to uphold a lower court decision that blocked President Joe Biden's September 2021 contractor vaccine executive order in those states after Louisiana, Indiana, and Mississippi brought suit to seek invalidation of the mandate. The court said Biden wanted it "to ratify an exercise of proprietary authority that would permit him to unilaterally impose a healthcare decision on one-fifth of all employees in the United States. We decline to do so." The majority opinion written by Judge Kurt Engelhardt said a broad interpretation of the law could give Biden "nearly unlimited authority to introduce requirements into federal contracts." Illustrating that point, he added, "hypothetically, the president could mandate that all employees of federal contractors reduce their BMI (body mass index) below a certain number on the theory that obesity is a primary contributor to unhealthiness and absenteeism." The Justice Department defended the mandate in a court filing, saying Biden's order was justified under the Procurement Act. Judge James Graves' dissent noted this was the first executive order under the Procurement Act to be struck down.
