The federal government’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers cannot go into effect in Texas, a federal judge ruled this week.
Sections of the act do let the health secretary make rules, but the law does not mention vaccines.
“Defendants cite statutory provisions authorizing the HHS secretary to condition funding on facility maintenance standards,” Kacsmaryk wrote. “Mandating facility standards is drastically different from mandating who a healthcare provider hires or fires.”
The act specifically states that the secretary may not “exercise any supervision or control … over the selection, tenure, or compensation of any officer or employee of any institution, agency, or person providing health services," Kacsmaryk noted.
“Here, the CMS mandate far exceeds its statutory authority. It allows the HHS secretary to make a healthcare worker’s employment status dependent on COVID-19 vaccine compliance,” he added. “Congress forbids such interference into employment decisions. Further, public health and safety regulation beyond facility standards is emphatically the province of the states through their police powers.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, hailed the ruling.
“This mandate is downright unconstitutional & the courts agree,” he wrote on Twitter.
The ruling means the mandate is blocked in 25 states.
A CMS spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email that the agency is reviewing the recent decisions and is evaluating the next steps regarding the mandate.
In another ruling handed down Thursday, U.S. District Judge Dee Drell said Biden’s mandate for federal contractors must not take effect for state employers in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Indiana.
Drell said the mandate likely violates the U.S. Constitutions’ Tenth Amendment.
Jeff Landry, the Republican attorney general of Louisiana, said the ruling “ensures Louisiana will remain protected if the nationwide injunction is overturned.”
