W.Va. AG Joins Suit To Stop Federal Vaccine Mandate

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has partnered with six other attorneys general to stop the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for private sector employees.

The coalition of states asked the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review the emergency temporary standard issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which requires the vaccination or weekly testing of tens of millions of citizens. The group also asked the court to suspend the mandate until it has made a decision.

“OSHA’s vaccination mandate represents a real threat to individual liberty,” Morrisey said, “As we have seen throughout the country, it is also a public policy disaster that displaces vulnerable workers and exacerbates a nationwide shortage of frontline workers, with severe consequences for all Americans.”

In the petition, the coalition argues that OSHA lacks statutory and constitutional authority to issue it. The states also argue that Congress gave OSHA the power to issue emergency temporary standards to protect employees from grave dangers posed by exposure to substances or physically harmful toxins encountered at work. That authority, however, does not extend to risks that are equally prevalent at work and in society at large, the petition said.

The petition also contends that the Biden Administration’s vaccine mandate prohibits sovereign states from enacting and enforcing their own policies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

West Virginia joined the lawsuit alongside attorneys general from Kentucky, Idaho, Kansas, Ohio, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

Read a copy of the petition.