Federal employees who acquired natural immunity through contracting and recovering from COVID-19 have filed a class-action suit against the U.S. government over President Joe Biden’s executive order mandating that all federal workers be vaccinated. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas by the New Civil Liberties Alliance with the Texas Public Policy Foundation as co-counsel. The suit claims the vaccine mandate is a violation of the plaintiffs’ constitutional and statutory rights and lists the federal government, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and members of a government task force as defendants.
Harriet Hageman, Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Wyoming, is co-counsel on the lawsuit for the New Civil Liberties Alliance.
“President Biden has ordered federal employees with natural immunity to be vaccinated, even though it is not medically necessary, and despite the fact that such a mandate is a clear violation of their constitutional and statutory rights and personal autonomy,” said Hageman. “The vaccine mandate is unconstitutional, unlawful, and will have no impact on public health because these people have already acquired natural immunity.”
Under the Biden vaccine mandate, federal employees – regardless of natural immunity status – are required to be vaccinated by a looming deadline and face disciplinary action, including the possible loss of employment, if they fail to comply. The order is a violation of the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights to bodily integrity and to decline medical treatment. The mandate is also a violation of the federal Emergency Use Authorization law, which specifies that patients have a right to informed consent and may decline receiving a drug approved under the statute.
The named plaintiffs and class representatives are employees of several federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Agriculture, among others. They are asking the court for temporary and permanent injunctive relief and a declaratory judgment that the mandate violates their constitutional and statutory rights. They also have demanded a jury trial.
Hageman is a long-time constitutional attorney who has served as Senior Litigation Counsel for the New Civil Liberties Alliance since May 2019.
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