The Fifth Circuit granted Boyden Gray & Associates’ petition for en banc rehearing in Feds for Medical Freedom v. Biden, which challenges President Biden’s 2021 executive order requiring federal workers to receive a COVID-19 vaccine or face termination.
In December 2021, Boyden Gray & Associates filed a lawsuit challenging the federal worker vaccine mandate, arguing that several million Americans had been placed in an “intolerable bind” by the federal employee mandate and were being forced either to get vaccinated or give up their careers. In January 2022, they district court granted Boyden Gray & Associate’s motion for a nationwide preliminary injunction of the mandate.
A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit ruled 2-1 that the entire challenge was precluded by the Civil Service Reform Act, but Judge Barksdale dissented and argued that a “pre-enforcement challenge to a government-wide policy” is not precluded by the CSRA. The Fifth Circuit granted Boyden Gray & Associates’ petition for en banc rehearing to reconsider that preclusion ruling.
The injunction remains in effect pending the hearing.