Wyoming has joined the fray in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a lower court’s decision allowing a federal vaccine mandate to move forward for companies employing 100 people or more.
On Saturday, Wyoming joined 26 other states in submitting an Emergency Application for Administrative Stay with the Supreme Court, asking for the reinstatement of a previous decision to halt President Joe Biden’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) vaccine mandate, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon’s office announced Monday.
The original halt on the mandate, which applies to companies employing 100 people or more, was initially granted by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in November. That decision was recently overturned by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
“While we are disappointed with the decision of the 6th Circuit’s panel, we immediately requested that the Supreme Court halt this mandate and hear this case,” Gordon said in a statement. “This overreaching rule exceeds OSHA’s authority and threatens the rights of Wyoming citizens and her industries.”
The application is the latest move in Wyoming’s fight against what Gordon has referred to as Biden’s “unconstitutional vaccine mandates” since OSHA revealed an emergency temporary standard implementing requirements that companies with 100 or more employees do one of two things: require its employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to weekly testing and the wearing of masks.
The standard would affect approximately 42 percent of the entire Wyoming workforce and 18 percent of the entire state population totaling 106,462 residents, according to a November declaration by the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services.
The Wyoming Department of Health provides COVID-19 case, variant, death, testing, hospital and vaccine data online. The department also shares information about how the data can be interpreted. COVID-19 safety recommendations are available from the CDC.
