Kansas, Missouri attorneys general file separate suits challenging Biden vaccine rules
The Kansas and Missouri attorneys general formally challenged Biden administration vaccine requirements for federal workers Friday.
Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, both running for higher office in 2022, announced separate lawsuits in federal courts over newly-published COVID-19 vaccination rules that cover a large swath of the private workplace.
The rules, issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), require workers for larger employers to either be vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to regular testing.
Schmidt, the lone Republican candidate for Kansas Governor next year, joined six other states filing a lawsuit in federal court in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Kentucky. Meanwhile, Schmitt, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, is leading a coalition of 11 states suing in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals Missouri.
Both suits ask that the OSHA rules be blocked pending a judicial review.
When the Biden administration first announced plans to issue the rules in September, both attorneys general questioned the legality. Schmidt said at the time he would challenge the rules as soon as possible.
Last week, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson issued an executive order in opposition to the requirements and Kansas Legislative Republicans held two days of hearings about possible strategies for pushing back.
In a statement Friday, Schmidt said OSHA had stepped outside the bounds of its emergency powers by issuing rules meant to protect against hazards that exist equally in the workplace and broader society.
“The net effect of this overreaching federal mandate is to discourage private businesses from employ(ing) unvaccinated workers by making it more costly, once again threatening the livelihood of many Kansas workers and businesses and promising more disruptions to supply chains nationwide,” Schmidt said.
In the Missouri suit Schmitt argued that the federal government does not have the authority to issue a vaccine requirement because public health rules are the purview of states.
Also joining the suit were a number of private and religious employers, including a Missouri company, Doolittle Trailer Manufacturing, Inc.
Last month, Schmitt visited the Holts Summit business, represented in the lawsuit separately by a private attorney, to hear employers’ reactions to the expected vaccine rules. A company employee is married to a staffer in Schmitt’s office, executive secretary Megan Wederhausen.
“We became familiar with Doolittle through that connection, but that connection to Doolittle played no role in their decision to ultimately join as a plaintiff,” Schmitt’s spokesman Chris Nuelle said in an email. “During our roundtable with Doolittle management, they expressed the devastating effects that the Biden Administration’s vaccine mandate could impose on their businesses, potentially forcing the 43-year-old business to shutter.”
Doolittle’s attorney Matt Murphy said the company is concerned about the costs of implementing the rule. In records of two separate federal Paycheck Protection Program loans it received, the company reported having 145 employees last year and 183 employees this year. The business has no estimate of how many are vaccinated, Murphy said.
“They don’t want to be involved in nor pry into the the private health records of their employees,” he said.
In Kansas, the lawsuits come as Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat up for reelection against Schmidt, criticized the mandates for the first time since they were announced.
Speaking to reporters Thursday Kelly expressed frustration over the rules superseding state efforts.
In a stronger statement, Friday, she said it was “too late” for the federal government to step in and impose a standard when states had been managing the pandemic response for more than a year.
“While I appreciate the intention to keep people safe, a goal I share, I don’t believe this directive is the correct, or the most effective, solution for Kansas,” Kelly said. “I will seek a resolution that continues to recognize the uniqueness of our state and builds on our on-going efforts to combat a once-in-a-century crisis.”
Last week, Schmidt and Schmitt filed separate lawsuits challenging vaccine requirements the Biden administration imposed for federal contractors, including some public universities.
The rules apply to private businesses with 100 or more employees, affecting an estimated 84 million workers nationwide.
They give employers until Jan. 4 to ensure workers are vaccinated or produce a weekly negative test. The directives also call for employees to receive paid time off to get vaccinated and that unvaccinated workers wear masks. Businesses will be able shift the cost of testing onto workers, which could potentially spur more to get the shot. Medical and religious exemptions will be allowed, Biden administration officials said Wednesday.
In an interview with McClatchy Thursday, U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh said OSHA has “every right” to impose a vaccine requirement.
“If that’s the route that the attorney general in Missouri or anyone takes, that’s the route they’re going to take, but the federal government has every right, every right, to put emergency temporary standards out to private businesses in the country,” Walsh said.
McClatchy DC’s Francesca Chambers contributed to this report.
This story was originally published November 5, 2021 at 12:05 PM with the headline "Kansas, Missouri attorneys general file separate suits challenging Biden vaccine rules."
