Employment Law Report

By: Margaret Young Levi

On November 30, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky issued a preliminary injunction enjoining the government from enforcing the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors and subcontractors in all covered contracts in Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee. As we previously reported, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron joined others in filing this lawsuit.  Cameron announced the injunction.  U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhov issued the opinion and order granting the preliminary injunction, noting:

-- This is not a case about whether vaccines are effective. They are. Nor is this a case about whether the government, at some level, and in some circumstances, can require citizens to obtain vaccines. It can. The question presented here is narrow. Can the president use congressionally delegated authority to manage the federal procurement of goods and services to impose vaccines on the employees of federal contractors and subcontractors? In all likelihood, the answer to that question is no.

The vaccine mandate was set to require all contractors be vaccinated by January 4, 2022.