Republican National Committee sues feds to halt employer COVID-19 vaccine mandate

Petition to D.C. federal appeals court calls mandate "contrary to constitutional power, unsupported by substantial evidence, arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion."

By Greg Piper

Published: November 5, 2021 4:40pm

Updated: November 5, 2021 5:25pm

The Republican National Committee followed through on its pledge to sue the Biden administration once the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's proposed regulation for an employer COVID-19 vaccine mandate was published in the Federal Register on Friday.

In a "petition for review" filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, rather than a federal district court, the political organization said the "emergency temporary standard" by OSHA will have "an immediate and harmful impact on the hundreds of thousands of private sector employers with 100 or more employees" including RNC.

It will require employers to "establish costly, burdensome, and potentially stigmatizing testing regimes for any employees who may remain unvaccinated" in addition to the overall requirement to ensure their employees are fully vaccinated.

The mandate exceeds OSHA's statutory authority "and is contrary to constitutional power, unsupported by substantial evidence, arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and otherwise contrary to law," the filing says, asking the D.C. Circuit to hold the proposed rule "unlawful and set it aside."

"It's so egregious that the Biden administration would put frontline workers who worked through this whole pandemic, saved lives, at risk if they are making agency over their own body," Chair Ronna McDaniel told Fox News Friday.

They shouldn't have to "choose between putting food on the table and their livelihood" or a coerced vaccination, she said, mocking the administration for delaying what is presented as an "emergency" standard until after the holidays.

Lawsuits against the mandate have been pouring in, including from Arizona and the Job Creators Network.

Just one public interest law firm, Alliance Defending Freedom, has filed challenges in multiple circuits on behalf of several religious groups. It joined lawsuits by several states and filed petitions for review in the 6th Circuit, 8th Circuit and 11th Circuit courts.