US vaccine mandate for troops survives a legal challenge
by Erik Larson
• Bloomberg News • November 15, 2021
The Pentagon in Washington, D.C., on May 12, 2021.
(Tribune News Service) — The Biden administration’s push for vaccine mandates, under fire in courts around the nation, has survived a legal challenge headed by former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell over vaccines in the military.
Powell, who tried to flip the result of the 2020 presidential election with a series of failed lawsuits based on conspiracy theories, lost a request to temporarily block the Pentagon’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of disgruntled service members.
The suit didn’t come close to meeting the high bar for winning a preliminary injunction, U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor ruled Friday in Pensacola, Florida.
The ruling is a crucial early victory for the U.S. Defense Department. A ruling against the U.S. also would have been a blow to President Joe Biden, whose broader vaccine mandate for companies with at least 100 employees was temporarily blocked a week earlier by a federal appeals court in a suit by Republican-led states.
https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2021-11-14/us-vaccine-mandate-troops-legal-challenge-3624251.html
