OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Two Senate Democrats have stabbed President Joe Biden in the back and voted with Republicans to nix Biden’s vaccine mandate for businesses.
On Wednesday, the Senate voted to repeal Biden’s vaccine mandate for private businesses by a vote of 52 – 48 with Democrat West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and Democrat Montana Sen. Jon Tester joining the GOP voters, Fox News reported.
Republicans brought the repeal to the Senate floor under the “Congressional Review Act,” which allows Congress to review presidential executive orders. Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., who sponsored the resolution, said the mandate was an example of the “heavy hand of government” hurting businesses.
The Biden administration’s mandate requires private companies with 100 or more employees to ensure their employees are vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo regular testing. Firms that do not comply face steep fines.
The mandate prompted immediate legal challenges from several states as well as business and religious groups. Last month, a federal appeals court enacted a temporary hold on enforcement of the mandate pending the outcome of litigation.
Even with Senate approval, the GOP-backed resolution is unlikely to overturn the mandate. The Democrat-controlled House is not expected to take up the measure and President Biden would likely veto the bill if it cleared Congress.
Republican Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty laid out his case for why he wanted to repeal the mandate ahead of the vote.
“Biden’s vaccine mandate—like so many other of the left’s policies—is about power, controlling more aspects of Americans’ lives, & in so doing, eroding Americans’ personal autonomy. On the #Senate floor tonight, I laid out why I support eliminating this unconstitutional mandate,” he said on Twitter with an attached video of him making the case.
Biden's vaccine mandate—like so many other of the left’s policies—is about power, controlling more aspects of Americans’ lives, & in so doing, eroding Americans’ personal autonomy.
On the #Senate floor tonight, I laid out why I support eliminating this unconstitutional mandate. pic.twitter.com/hj6dF2DMuH
— Senator Bill Hagerty (@SenatorHagerty) December 8, 2021
Biden’s mandate has been struck down by several courts.
On Tuesday a federal judge took the side of South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson in striking down a mandate that would require the employees of federal contractors to be vaccinated, News 2 Charleston reported.
“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,” the attorney general said.
The judge issued a preliminary injunction which prohibits the government from enforcing the mandate, which marks the third time federal judges have sided with the attorney general against the Biden administration on the mandate.
On November 30 another federal judge sided with the attorney general and other states, when he blocked Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for health care workers, issuing a nationwide injunction on the president’s order.
“Louisiana Western District U.S. Judge Terry Doughty’s decision follows an identical ruling Monday from Missouri U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp, but Schelp’s decision only covered 10 states,” The Daily Advertiser reported.
“Doughty ruled on the lawsuit led by Republican Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and joined by 13 other states, but Doughty added a nationwide injunction in his ruling,” the news organization reported.
“If the separation of powers meant anything to the Constitutional framers, it meant that the three necessary ingredients to deprive a person of liberty or property – the power to make rules, to enforce them, and to judge their violations – could never fall into the same hands,” the judge said.
“If the executive branch is allowed to usurp the power of the legislative branch to make laws, two of the three powers conferred by our Constitution would be in the same hands. If human nature and history teach anything, it is that civil liberties face grave risks when governments proclaim indefinite states of emergency,” he said.
“During a pandemic such as this one, it is even more important to safeguard the separation of powers set forth in our Constitution to avoid erosion of our liberties. Because the Plaintiff States have satisfied all four elements required for a preliminary injunction to issue, this Court has determined that a preliminary injunction should issue against the Government Defendants,” the judge said. “This matter will ultimately be decided by a higher court than this one. However, it is important to preserve the status quo in this case. The liberty interests of the unvaccinated require nothing less.”
“Therefore, the scope of this injunction will be nationwide, except for the states of Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, New Hampshire, Nebraska, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, since these ten states are already under a preliminary injunction order dated November 29, 2021, out of the Eastern District of Missouri,” he said.
“This preliminary injunction shall remain in effect pending the final resolution of this case, or until further orders from this Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, or the United States Supreme Court,” he said.