Several prominent Christian organizations have joined one of several lawsuits against the Biden administration over the recently finalized vaccine mandate for businesses employing more than 100 people.
First Liberty Institute is representing the American Family Association, Answers in Genesis, and Daystar Television Network in a petition to the Fifth and Sixth Circuit Courts of Appeals, while the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and the Asbury Theological Seminary are being represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom.
Last week, the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration released the final version of a mandate that President Joe Biden first announced over the summer which will impose heavy fines on businesses that do not require employees receive COVID-19 vaccinations or submit to regular testing.
The Fifth Circuit issued a stay against the mandate on Saturday, temporarily halting the controversial mandate.
“Before the court is the petitioners’ emergency motion to stay enforcement of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s November 5, 2021 Emergency Temporary Standard (the “Mandate”) pending expedited judicial review,” the court stated.
“Because the petitions give cause to believe there are grave statutory and constitutional issues with the Mandate, the Mandate is hereby STAYED pending further action by this court.”
This was an unexpectedly swift response and a big win for states and businesses alike that objected to the mandate.
Yesterday, I sued the Biden Admin over its unlawful OSHA vax mandate.
WE WON. Just this morning, citing “grave statutory and constitutional issues,” the 5th Circuit stayed the mandate. The fight is not over and I will never stop resisting this Admin’s unconstitutional overreach! pic.twitter.com/okt2vkNRKo
— Texas Attorney General (@TXAG) November 6, 2021
It signals a strong likelihood that the mandate could ultimately be struck down in court. On Friday, Kansas’ Democratic Governor Laura Kelly came out against the mandate, saying it was the wrong manner to go about promoting widespread vaccination.
The first major company to sue the Biden administration over the mandate was conservative media outlet The Daily Wire, which was represented by the ADF.
Conservatives and Christians, many of whom are in favor of vaccination in general, have been some of the leading voices against federal and state mandates and the swift resolution on behalf of prominent faith-based entities to oppose the OSHA rules should signal to the nation that precious philosophical liberties are at stake, Dr. Albert Mohler said on Friday.
“It is unacceptable for the government to force religious institutions to become coercive extensions of state power,” the SBTS president initially said in response to the OSHA mandate. “We have no choice but to push back against this intrusion of the government into matters of conscience and religious conviction.”
“This institution exists for the purpose of educating ministers for churches,” Mohler said of the school. “This seminary must not be forced to stand in for the government in investigating the private health decisions of our faculty and employees in a matter involving legitimate religious concerns.”
He added that, with the lawsuit, “the largest U.S. seminaries of the Baptist and Methodist traditions” standing against the federal government’s mandate “should send a clear and urgent message to Christians and to the nation.”
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