Federal employees with religious objections to COVID-19 vaccines had their faith in government bolstered when a judge stayed the federal “jabs for jobs” mandate.
U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, in the District of Columbia, issued a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction on Thursday that will protect plaintiffs from being fired while their religious exemption requests to President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate are pending.
“None of the civilian employee plaintiffs will be subject to discipline while his or her request for a religious exception is pending,” Kollar-Kotelly wrote in her restraining order. Since the Biden Administration gave no guarantees, Judge Kollar-Kotelly gave them until noon today to file a supplemental notice informing the court whether they voluntarily agree to wait to discipline or terminate plaintiffs pending the court’s ruling on the matter.
The Biden Administration counter-punched with a filing that informed the judge it would not agree to wait to discipline or terminate any employees in the process of seeking a religious exemption to the vaccine pending the court’s ruling.
President Biden and members of his administration were sued by 20 plaintiffs last month over his Sept. 9 executive order requiring vaccines for all federal employees and contractors, reported Fox News. The plaintiffs complained they faced termination, separation and discharge from the military on or before Nov. 22. That day is also the anniversary of the 1963 assassination of former President John F. Kennedy.
“The Biden Administration has shown an unprecedented, cavalier attitude toward the rule of law and an utter ineptitude at basic constitutional contours,” said the plaintiffs’ attorney Michael Yoder in a statement to Fox News.
The lawsuit is the latest against the administration stemming from growing claims that its vaccine mandates are unconstitutional. Florida entered the fray with the announcement that the Sunshine State filed a lawsuit against the Biden Administration challenging the legality of mandating vaccines for federal contractors, such as airlines.
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