Payton Carter

Professor Mark Jendrysik

American Government

25 September 2021

COVID- 19 vaccinations in the federal court

President Joe Biden spoke on the covid vaccine mandate he plans to uphold through the

federal courts. He put out an executive order for this mandate that any private businesses

with more than 100 employees require either vaccination or weekly testing. “This is a

pandemic of the unvaccinated” Biden said. “One is that here is a strong legal precedent

supporting Biden’s moves, especially for the policies affecting federal workers and health

care facilities. But at the same time, various rulings in recent years have chipped away at

these precedents, and the Biden administration is likely to face credible challenges in

court against at least some of these policies.” (Politifact). This is saying that there are

people who agree with what President Biden is doing and that some are saying that this

will never be upheld in the federal courts, many people are also saying that the legal

actions of this mandate are wrong. “Acting as an employer, the federal government, like

other employees, can routinely impose all sorts of conditions that would be illegal if

imposed on the general public.” (Somin). One issue with this executive order is that it

could cause friction with employee unions and that the court majority considered this

order coercive. One way to get out of the covid mandate in private businesses is through

religious exemption in some states, including every state except for the following: West
Virginia, New York, Mississippi, Maine, Connecticut, and California. The rest of the

United States, which is a so called “free country” may accept your religious exemption

after you send in a paper explaining why you want and should receive one. Religious

liberty cases are among “the most likely to gain traction” Parment says. Meaning that

there will be a lot of people trying to use this religious exemption to get out of taking the

vaccine, while others using this reason will actually have a reason. But it will be hard to

know who is using this for the right reasons. If one of these exemptions, religious or not

fails and is not accepted, there will be a huge dispute about it. How would one know if it

was a true exemption and should be accepted? They have no idea and it will be hard to

deny them. In the mandate there is a phrase that says: “with exceptions only required by

law,” which could be read to cover religious exemptions, potentially boosting its ability

to be upheld. If workers are being forced to get this vaccine in order to keep their job

does that mean that the company is going to be liable and take blame for any side effects

caused by the vaccine? What happened to living in a free country or “my body, my

rights”? The only time that is upheld in this day in age is when it is convenient for them.

When American citizens are working for an employer, whether they chose that job or not,

they should not be forced by that said employer to put something in their body that could

cause long term health problems including blood clots, strokes, heart attacks,

myocarditis, paralysis, infertility, and much more. If an American citizen chooses, as they

should be able to, to not put something in their body, they should not be punished or

threatened for it. How should this be allowed in a free country? Even if every single

person did get the vaccine there is no proof that COVID would disappear, I say this

knowing the fact that even with the vaccine, even with masks that you still have to wear
even having the vaccine, you can still spread and get COVID. Biden states that “… it’s

caused by the fact that despite America having an unprecedented and successful

vaccination program, despite the fact that for almost five months free vaccinations have

been available in 80,000 different locations, we still have nearly 80 million Americans

who have failed to get the shot.” When Biden says and I quote: “failed to get the shot” he

is taking away our right to choose what goes into our bodies. As an American Citizen, I

feel it be corrupt to push something on us so hard that we are being threatened to lose

jobs that we worked hard to get. Jobs that we went to college for. Imagine going to

college for 12 years to be a doctor and provide for your family and you are now denied

the right to have that job because of the fact you feel like you should not have to put

something in your body with so many side effects, which are stated before. In conclusion,

I disagree with this mandate and the way it is being pushed on all people along with

taking away their rights. I disagree with states not accepting forms of exemptions and the

government mandating anything that would take away from the freedoms of the

American people.
Works Cited:

1, Richard Hudsonstated on September, et al. “Politifact.” PolitiFact,

https://www.politifact.com/.

“President Biden's Covid-19 Plan.” The White House, The United States Government, 9 Sept.
2021, https://www.whitehouse.gov/covidplan/.