On November 5th, 2021, Boyden Gray & Associates filed a petition asking the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals to issue an administrative stay and a stay pending judicial review of the emergency temporary standard (vaccine mandate) issued without notice-and-comment by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA). The vaccine mandate covers 84 million American workers and will require 32 million of them to be vaccinated against COVID or undergo weekly tests—or be fired. The vaccine mandate applies to every company with 100 or more employees, across the country, with only the most minimal of exceptions. Violations can result in five- and six-figure fines.
The petitioners—Job Creators Network, the Independent Bakers Association, a coalition of small businesses, and an individual employee—face the distinct prospect that a substantial number of employees will walk off the job rather than comply with the vaccine mandate. This will trigger a cascade of irreparable injuries as companies are unable to satisfy work orders, leading to lost clients, damaged reputation, and the threat of shutting their doors. The public will suffer tremendously, too. These small businesses provide critical supply chain services like food production, grocery store food deliveries, and emergency repairs for buildings and roads. By forcing those companies to operate without a sizable part of their workforce, the vaccine mandate will cause immediate shortages at grocery stores, shortages of household and commercial goods, and languishing critical infrastructure failures.
This petition and others filed in other circuits, have been consolidated in Multi-District Litigation. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals was chosen to hear the cases on November 16.
Job Creators Network is a nonpartisan organization founded by entrepreneurs whose mission is to educate employees of Main Street America, so we can protect the 85 million people who depend on the success of small businesses.
Boyden Gray & Associates is a boutique litigation and public policy firm, continuing C. Boyden Gray’s decades of service as counselor to presidents, business leaders, legislators, and regulators on matters of constitutional law, regulatory policy, and international affairs.