Appeals court reinstates Biden's employer vaccine mandate

A federal appeals court panel voted 2-1 Friday to allow President Biden's employer vaccine mandate to take effect, The Wall Street Journal reports. This ruling from Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturns the decision handed down by another federal court, which blocked the mandate last month.

Under the Biden administration's rules, which are set to take effect in January, businesses with 100 or more employees would have to require that those employees present either proof of vaccination or weekly negative COVID tests. Employees who refuse are to be fired. Employers who fail to enforce this policy could be fined more than $13,000 per violation. The mandate would affect more than 80 million workers, according to The Associated Press.

The plaintiffs — a group that includes 27 Republican state attorneys general, several business advocacy groups, and some individual business owners — immediately made an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Among the plaintiffs is conservative media company The Daily Wire, which released a statement last month insisting that their lawsuit "does not take a position on whether someone should receive the vaccine or not, only against Biden's mandate."

"We're not the enforcement arm of the federal government," Daily Wire co-founder Jeremy Boreing said, calling the mandate a "grotesque abuse of power."