President Biden's vaccination guidelines have hit yet another snag.
A federal judge on Friday blocked the administration's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal workers, just one week after the Supreme Court struck down his vaccine-or-testing mandate for the nation's large private employers, reports The Wall Street Journal.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey V. Brown in Texas said Biden did not have the power to mandate "that all federal employees consent to vaccination against COVID-19 or lose their job," per the Journal.
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Brown noted that the case was not about whether or not individuals should get vaccinated — instead, he said, it was about "whether the President can, with the stroke of a pen and without the input of Congress, require millions of federal employees to undergo a medical procedure as a condition of their employment."
"That, under the current state of the law as just recently expressed by the Supreme Court, is a bridge too far," he wrote.
Brown's ruling, however, arrives "months after the White House said that 95 percent of federal workers were already in compliance" with the mandate, notes The New York Times. On Friday, the administration clarified that 98 percent of government workers are now vaccinated or have requested medical or religious exemptions.
The Justice Department plans to appeal Brown's decision, per the Times. Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the White House is "confident in our legal authority here."
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