The Buckeye Institute Files Motion for Emergency Stay to Halt Biden’s Unconstitutional Vaccine Mandate on Private Employers
Columbus, OH – The Buckeye Institute—following its original challenge (filed Thursday, November 4) against the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)—filed a Motion for Emergency Stay on Friday asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to immediately halt the federal vaccine mandate.
The
Buckeye Institute’s emergency motion argues that the mandate—one of the
most far-reaching and invasive rules ever promulgated by the federal
government—exceeds OSHA’s authority under the Occupational Health and
Safety Act, violates the major questions doctrine, was promulgated in
violation of the Congressional Review Act, and impermissibly trammels on
numerous constitutional principles including the non-delegation
doctrine and limitations on federal power under the Commerce Clause.
“The
OSHA vaccine mandate is not about workplace safety, but is a rather
transparent attempt by the Biden Administration to work around statutory
and constitutional limitations on federal power in order to impose
requirements on individuals—something OSHA lacks the power to do,” said
Robert Alt, president and chief executive of The Buckeye Institute,
who is counsel of record representing Phillips Manufacturing and Sixarp
LLC. “In addition to highlighting the numerous and fatal legal problems
with the federal vaccine mandate, The Buckeye Institute’s clients
demonstrate the unnecessary economic damage it would cause not only to a
struggling U.S. economy, but also to the Midwestern communities where
these companies are located and to the lives and families of the
hardworking men and women who work in them.”
Buckeye’s
first of two clients in the case, Phillips Manufacturing & Tower
Company, has invested significant resources in providing antibody
testing for its employees. The results of these tests demonstrate that a
significant number of the company’s unvaccinated employees already have
natural immunity, which numerous studies show is stronger and longer
lasting than vaccinated immunity. Even so, the federal vaccine mandate
would require Phillips to terminate these productive and trained
employees if they refuse either to be vaccinated or to engage in weekly
testing. Internal company surveys reveal that a significant number of
employees would leave Phillips Manufacturing & Tower Company if they
were forced to comply with President Biden’s vaccine mandate. This
reality in combination with a current worker shortage would financially
devastate the company, the community, and would cripple the supply chain
of steel tubing that is vital to employers in other industries. The
vaccine mandate would also impact the company’s ability to fulfill
current contracts, leading to a loss of customers to foreign-based
suppliers, which would result in significant contractual penalties if
Phillips is unable to fill orders due to worker shortages. The mandate,
if implemented, would cost Phillips Manufacturing nearly $1 million
annually.
As lead attorney in the case Robert Alt wrote recently in The Wall Street Journal,
“[O]ur nation’s Founders understood that much mischief can be done
under the theory of being ‘for your own good’ and provided limits to
government authorities accordingly. Even during a pandemic, the Biden
administration would do well to respect those limits.”
Buckeye’s
second of two clients in the case, Sixarp, employs more than 600 people
at its Grand Rapids packaging facility, and dozens of employees in
Ohio. Sixarp provides secondary packaging operations for products
including over-the-counter and prescription pharmaceuticals. Sixarp is a
critical component of the U.S. supply chain that is already facing
worker shortages, which of course the vaccine mandate would exacerbate.
With the holiday season fast approaching, complying with the mandate
would have a devastatingly negative impact on production, not to mention
the effect it would have on employees who—many due to sincerely held
religious beliefs—would be forced to either quit their jobs or violate
their conscience.
Buckeye’s co-counsel in the case are Patrick Strawbridge, Jeffrey M. Harris, and Daniel Shapiro at Consovoy McCarthy PLLC.
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