President Biden’s Federal Vaccine Mandate

Last week, President Biden issued an executive order mandating COVID-19 vaccines for federal employees. NCLA is opposed to the government implementing a vaccine mandate, which will force federal employees and contractors into choosing between their health and personal autonomy and suffering serious detriment to their professional careers.

NCLA has filed several lawsuits against public universities (George Mason University and Michigan State University) over their vaccine mandates for employees who have naturally acquired immunity to COVID-19. 

Contrary to the views of Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb and a recent Israeli study that concluded naturally acquired immunity is superior to vaccine immunity, the federal government refuses to recognize naturally acquired immunity in its vaccine mandate.

NCLA argues that it is fundamentally improper for policymakers to ignore the evidence that naturally acquired immunity, in Dr. Gottlieb’s words, “confers a durable protection.” The federal government should not be permitted to infringe on its employees’ rights to bodily autonomy and to reject medical treatments by making their continued employment conditional on taking a medically unnecessary vaccine.  

The Federal Arbitration Act and the 9th Circuit’s Decision to Uphold CA’s AB51

AB51 is a California law that bans mandatory arbitration and imposed criminal penalties on employers for mandating arbitration. The law was set to take effect in 2019. AB51 was stopped by a temporary restraining order and then an injunction in January 2020 in the US District Court.

It was argued that AB51 conflicted with the Federal Arbitration Act and was therefore unconstitutional.

This week, the 9th Circuit ruled that AB51 is only partially unconstitutional as to the criminal penalties.