Biden wants lawsuits vs vaccine plan combined

The Biden administration on Monday defended its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for large companies and requested that multiple lawsuits against the workplace rule be consolidated in a single federal court.

At least 27 states plus several businesses and associations have filed a dozen legal challenges in at least six federal appeals courts after the rules were released last week. The suits against the mandate basically say the federal government doesn't have the authority to make the regulation, partly because COVID-19 isn't a workplace-specific danger.

All the states filing against the mandate have a Republican governor or attorney general. The suits have been filed in the most conservative appeals courts in the country, where appointees of former president Donald Trump are the majorities.

The request by the Justice Department on Monday was in response to three judges on the New Orleans-based US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit who over the weekend gave the government until 5 pm on Monday to respond to a motion filed by plaintiffs for a permanent injunction blocking the mandate issued last week.

The mandate — issued by the Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) -- would apply to private businesses with more than 100 workers. Employees who don't receive the shots by Jan 4 would be required to wear a mask and be tested weekly for the coronavirus. The rules allow exemptions for workers citing religious objections and for those who don't interact in-person with coworkers or customers, as well as those who work only outdoors.

The 5th circuit court said the mandate raises "grave statutory and constitutional issues" and blocked it pending a response from the administration.

But it wasn't clear whether the emergency stay issued Saturday by the court applied nationwide or just to the states that filed in that case — Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Utah.

On Monday in the St. Louis-based 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals, where Missouri and 10 other states had filed a suit to block the mandate, asked the court to enter a similar order to avoid confusion because it said the 5th circuit's order doesn't explicitly state it applied nationwide.

A group of states, businesses and organizations challenging the rule in the court also called Monday for a quick review of their challenge to the workplace rule.

The Biden administration, Democratic lawmakers and many public health officials have said that the mandate is needed to vaccinate more Americans against COVID-19.

On Monday, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre defended the mandate and said the administration was confident that the mandate can withstand any legal challenges.

"This is an authority that we believe the Department of Labor has," Jean-Pierre she told reporters during a news briefing. "We are very confident about it."

She said the mandate was about keeping people safe and that Congress had empowered the Labor Department to act with the OSHA act of 1970.

A lawsuit led by Florida, Alabama and Georgia in the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit Court argues that the rules clash with the First Amendment and Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

"This unlawful mandate is yet another example of the Biden administration's complete disregard for the constitutional rights afforded to our state and our citizens," said Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr.

"The federal government has no authority to force health-care decisions on Georgia's companies and its employees under the guise of workplace safety. We are fighting back against this unprecedented abuse of power to stop this mandate before it causes irreparable harm to our state and its economy."