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Citing the “liberty interests of the unvaccinated,” a federal judge in the Western District of Louisiana issued a nationwide order Tuesday against efforts by the administration of President Joe Biden to require health care workers nationwide to receive a vaccine against the novel coronavirus.
Judge Terry A. Doughty, a Donald Trump appointee, enjoined the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, “along with their directors, employees, Administrators and Secretaries,” from implementing the Nov. 5, 2021 mandate “as to all healthcare providers, suppliers, owners, employees, and all others covered” by the mandate. According to its summary, the Biden Administration’s mandate required “Medicare- and Medicaid-certified providers and suppliers” — in other words, entities and people who interact financially with the federal government — to generally require COVID-19 vaccinations “to help protect the health and safety of residents, clients, patients, PACE participants, and staff” if they wish to continue to “participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.”
Doughty also ordered “that the scope of this injunction shall be nationwide, except for the states of Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, New Hampshire, Nebraska, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, since these ten states are already under a preliminary injunction order dated November 29, 2021, issued by [another judge in] the Eastern District of Missouri.”…
