Read Judge Doughty's order blocking Biden's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers
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A Louisiana U.S. district judge blocked a federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers Tuesday, issuing a nationwide injunction against President Joe Biden's Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services rule.
Louisiana Western District U.S. Judge Terry Doughty's decision follows a Monday ruling from Missouri U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp which only covered 10 states.
The mandate required the staff of twenty-one types of Medicare and Medicaid healthcare providers to receive one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by Dec. 2021, and to receive the second vaccine by Jan. 4, 2022, according to the order.
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The mandate would have impacted more than 10.3 million health care workers in the United States, 2.4 million of whom are currently unvaccinated, according to the judge's order.
In his decision, Doughty wrote the Biden administration doesn't have the authority to bypass Congress in issuing such a mandate.
"If the executive branch is allowed to usurp the power of the legislative branch to make laws, two of the three powers conferred by our Constitution would be in the same hands," he wrote. "If human nature and history teach anything, it is that civil liberties face grave risks when governments proclaim indefinite states of emergency.
Read the full text of Judge Terry Doughty's order here:
Judge Terry Doughty's memorandum order blocking COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers by USA TODAY Network on Scribd
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Greg Hillburn contributed to this report
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Read the order: Federal judge blocks Biden's COVID-19 vaccine mandate
