The entire Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is poised to hear oral arguments Tuesday on whether President Joe Biden’s administration exceeded its authority by requiring that most federal employees get vaccinated against COVID-19.
The Fifth Circuit has a livestream link where the public can listen to the hearing in real time although the livestream link is only active during the hearing. The appeals court also has a court link for recordings of oral arguments posted days after the fact.
All 17 judges for the New Orleans-based appeals court were to hear arguments Tuesday at 9 a.m. Central Time in Feds for Medical Freedom versus Biden. The full court agreed in June to hear the matter in what is known as an “en banc” proceeding. That was two months after a three-judge panel for the Fifth Circuit ruled 2-to-1 in favor of the administration’s vaccination mandate.
The appeals court panel overturned a January decision by a federal district judge in southern Texas that temporarily blocked imposition of the order, as the federal-employee plaintiffs asked.
The mandate was designed to tame the highly-contagious virus that has killed more than 1 million Americans, according to the online Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. The university’s online tracker says 68% of the United States population is now vaccinated against COVID-19.
The Department of Energy, which recently stopped collecting vaccination information on employees, contractors and visitors, said months ago that well over 90% of its staff and contractor workforce were vaccinated against COVID-19.
