CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is praising a decision by a Louisiana federal judge saying President Biden's administration cannot impose a COVID-19 vaccine mandate on teachers in the Head Start early education program.
West Virginia had joined a 24-state lawsuit against the Biden administration’s overreaching COVID mandates. The suit took aim at the president’s unlawful requirements of masks on toddlers and COVID vaccine shots for staff and volunteers in Head Start programs.
U.S. District Judge Terry A. Doughty of the Western District of Louisiana issued the memorandum ruling September 21.
“This ruling makes it crystal clear that the imposition of this mandate is unlawful and would only hurt already struggling workers and volunteers in underserved communities,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “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.”
Head Start provides assistance to underserved children, including early childhood education and resources for families. Morrisey and the other AGs argued that forcing teachers, contractors and volunteers in Head Start programs to be vaccinated by Jan. 31, 2022, would have cost jobs and programming.
In the lawsuit, the states allege that 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.
West Virginia joined the Louisiana-led lawsuit with attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, 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