Federal contractors and subcontractors across the country were forced to rethink their COVID-safety efforts when, on December 7, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia enjoined enforcement of Executive Order 14042 nationwide. EO 14042, as most know by now, imposed vaccination, masking, and physical distancing requirements on domestic federal contractors and subcontractors. The Georgia District Court Order goes well beyond the prior federal court injunction that prohibited enforcement of the EO only in Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee.

The Georgia decision (formally captioned The State of Georgia v. Joseph Biden, 1:21-cv-163) is the result of a complaint filed by the states of Georgia, Alabama, Idaho, Kansas, South Carolina, Utah, and West Virginia. Subsequently, the Court permitted a nationwide trade association (Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc., or ABC) to intervene as a plaintiff as well. The decision to permit ABC to intervene proved particularly impactful in that the Court relied on the national membership of ABC as the basis for applying its injunction nationwide.