CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey applauded a Louisiana federal judge’s ruling that says President Biden’s administration cannot impose a COVID-19 vaccine mandate on teachers in the Head Start early education program.
Last month, West Virginia joined a 24-state lawsuit against the administration’s requirements of masks on toddlers and COVID vaccine shots for staff and volunteers in Head Start programs.
“This is a clear victory for our state and our coalition,” Morrisey said in a press release. “This mandate would have ultimately hurt, not helped, the working families, single parents, and grandparents raising grandchildren who desperately depend on programs such as Head Start.”
Morrisey
Head Start provides assistance to underserved children, including early childhood education and resources for families. The states argued that forcing teachers, contractors and volunteers in Head Start programs to be vaccinated by January 31 would have cost jobs and programing.
In their lawsuit, the states claims the Head Start mandate is not only beyond the executive branch’s authority and arbitrary and capricious, but it also violates various federal laws passed by Congress.
The district judge agreed with this assessment and preliminarily enjoined the mandate.
“This is yet another unlawful attempt by the Biden administration to impose vaccine mandates upon workers and volunteers, which will hurt already-struggling staffs in underserved communities and likely impede child development,” Morrisey previously said. “This effort goes even further by requiring universal masking for everyone over the age of two who is associated with the program.
“This mandate will ultimately hurt, not help the working families, single parents, and grandparents raising grandchildren who desperately depend on programs such as Head Start.”
In November, Morrisey’s office joined a lawsuit regarding the Occupational Safety and Health Administration vaccine mandate, as well as a lawsuit challenging a federally imposed vaccine mandate on healthcare workers; requests for a stay of both mandates are currently before the U.S. Supreme Court. Both will be heard by the court January 7.
Morrisey also joined a suit challenging a vaccine requirement for federal contractors, which resulted in a preliminary injunction granted by the federal court.
West Virginia joined the Louisiana-led lawsuit with attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming.
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana case number 3:21-cv-04370
