Federal court blocks vaccine requirement for federal contractors

A federal judge in Georgia has blocked the vaccine requirement for federal contractors nationwide, who would have had to get vaccinated by Jan. 18.

Earlier rulings blocked vaccine mandates for health care workers and businesses with 100 or more employees.

More: Federal judge blocks vaccine mandate for health care workers

More: Circuit Court accepts Gov. Henry McMaster's argument, stays federal vaccine mandate for businesses

Judge Stan Baker accepted the arguments and found that the federal vaccine mandates violated the Tenth Amendment, making this the third case in a span of a week where vaccine mandates were assessed as a product of federal overreach by an appellate court.

The Tenth Amendment says that the federal government only has powers that are explicitly listed in the constitution.

Baker said in his ruling that blocking the vaccine mandates for just the states that are involved in the lawsuit would lead to "confusion." To avoid that the ruling has nationwide applicability.

“Abuse of power by the Biden administration has been stopped cold again. The rule of law has prevailed and liberty is protected. When the President oversteps his authority the law is thankfully there to halt his misuse of power,” Attorney General Wilson said.

This comes after a Missouri and Louisiana judge blocked vaccine mandates for health care workers.

Tuesday night, following a previous decision to keep its vaccine requirement in place, Bon Secours St. Francis - Greenville emailed a statement saying it will not require its employees to take the COVID vaccine.

"This decision doesn’t change how we feel about the COVID-19 vaccine – it is safe, highly-effective and how we will move beyond this pandemic. We are taking this step to ensure we maintain safe staffing in our markets, to respond to the needs of our communities," public relations and communications manager Jennifer Robinson wrote in an emailed statement.

Prisma Health has announced that it is suspending its COVID vaccine requirements for employees, and AnMed Health has announced that it is not going to suspend or terminate employees who are not compliant with its mandate.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Federal judge in Georgia blocks vaccine mandate for federal contractors