While the issue of whether private employers can legally enforce vaccine mandates among their workforce continues to be challenged across the country, a split panel in the Fifth Circuit is the first appellate court to signal...more
In the midst of declining infection rates and increasing debate over mask and vaccine mandates, on February 7, 2022, Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge Raylene DeWitte Grischow temporarily enjoined COVID-19 mitigation...more
On Friday, a court ruling in Springfield resulted in a temporary restraining order enjoining the Governor from enforcing certain COVID-19 mitigation measures including universal masking. Approximately 150 of Illinois’ 840...more
Three circuit court decisions issued in the past two weeks have considered the CMS vaccine mandate, bringing the issue – and similar vaccine mandate lawsuits – to the Supreme Court in the final weeks of the year. The CMS...more
Executive Order 14042 (the “EO”) and the implementing FAR clause and Safer Workforce Task Force (SWTF) Guidance – which mandate that government contractors and their subcontractors be vaccinated absent a legal exception – has...more
A flurry of litigation in federal district and appellate courts has led to an even split between states in which the COVID-19 vaccine mandate issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services may be implemented and...more
On December 16, in the challenge filed by Louisiana, Mississippi, and Indiana to the federal contractor vaccine mandate, the Western District of Louisiana (WD of LA) granted the plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction...more
The Fifth Circuit has found that the nationwide injunction of the CMS vaccine mandate issued by the Western District of Louisiana should be narrowed to apply only to the 14 states involved in the Louisiana lawsuit. This comes...more
Following up on two recent federal court decisions enjoining the enforcement of the contractor vaccine mandate, the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) has issued guidance, posted on the Safer Federal Workforce Task...more
On December 7, 2021, Judge R. Stan Baker of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia enjoined the federal government from enforcing Executive Order 14042’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate for federal...more
As anticipated in our prior alerts, there have been continuing practical and legal challenges to implementing the Path Out of the Pandemic plan. This alert provides an update on the current status of challenges to OSHA's...more
On November 30, 2021, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky issued an order (PI Order) enjoining the federal government from enforcing the federal contractor vaccine mandate “in all covered...more
On November 30, 2021, a federal district court in Louisiana issued a nationwide injunction enjoining the implementation of the CMS mandate imposing COVID-19 vaccination requirements on covered healthcare providers. ...more
On Tuesday, November 30, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky enjoined the federal government from enforcing the vaccine mandate for federal contractors and subcontractors in all covered...more
On November 30, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky issued an order granting a preliminary injunction to block the enforcement of the vaccine mandate for federal contractors and subcontractors...more
On November 30, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky threw a wrench into the federal government’s efforts to enforce Executive Order 14042’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate against federal...more
On November 18, 2021, the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling by the Federal District Court in Massachusetts denying Mass General Brigham (MGB) employees’ request for a preliminary injunction which would have...more
On Friday, November 12, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued an order staying enforcement and implementation of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) COVID-19 “vaccine or test”...more
In a November 4, 2021 opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld New York’s vaccine mandate for healthcare workers, rejecting arguments advanced by healthcare professionals in two different district...more
On October 28, 2021, the State of Florida filed a challenge to the Biden administration’s requirement that employees of federal government contractors be vaccinated by December 8, 2021....more
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals later this year will hear oral arguments in an important case deciding whether a lower federal court correctly enjoined the Kentucky Attorney General from applying the State’s price gouging...more
Last week, a federal court in North Carolina issued a temporary restraining order enjoining the assembly of religious worship provisions in Governor Roy Cooper’s Executive Order 138 (EO-138). The court found that EO-138 was...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: In Rural Community Worker’s Alliance et al v. Smithfield Foods, Inc. et al., No. 5:20-cv-6063 (W.D. Mo. May 5, 2020), Western District of Missouri Judge Greg Kays granted Smithfield’s motion to dismiss...more
Earlier this month, a federal court in Kentucky temporarily enjoined an order issued by the Mayor of Louisville on the grounds that the order likely violated First Amendment and Kentucky’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act. ...more
On April 21, 2020, Wisconsin’s legislature filed suit against Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services (“DHS”) Secretary-designee, Andrea Palm, seeking to temporarily enjoin or prohibit DHS or any local law enforcement...more