Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson is joining ten states in filing a lawsuit against the Biden Administration for imposing COVID-19 vaccine mandates for federal contractors and federally contracted employees.
In a news release sent by Peterson’s Office:
“For the first year and a half of the COVID-19 pandemic, both the Trump and Biden Administrations rightly acknowledged that the federal government lacks the authority to broadly mandate vaccines on the American people,” said Attorney General Peterson. “But all that changed on September 9, 2021, when the Biden Administration did an about-face and announced that it would impose a wide-ranging set of vaccine mandates, including one for employees of federal contractors. This far-reaching order is unconstitutional because it is the states, not the federal government, that are responsible for addressing such matters of public health.”
“The ramifications of the federal contractor vaccine mandate are significant,” Attorney General Peterson explained. “It will impact countless employees, exacerbate existing workforce shortages, and create economic instability. Most importantly, it puts individual employees who happened to work for federal contractors out of a job if they simply make the personal choice not to be vaccinated. Hopefully, the court will resolve this legal matter quickly and provide clarity to employees who are understandably concerned about their ability to provide for their families.”
Governor Pete Ricketts also signed Friday an executive order barring state agencies from enforcing vaccine mandates on employees.