A US federal court of appeal on Saturday suspended the vaccine obligation introduced by Joe Biden for employees of companies of more than 100 people, the time to examine potential “serious constitutional problems”.
The US president’s measure requires tens of millions of employees to be vaccinated against Covid-19 by January 4, under penalty of having to undergo very regular tests.
Announced in mid-September, it was adopted this week by the executive, and was immediately challenged as a matter of urgency in court, in particular by the state of Texas, controlled by Republicans opposed to any vaccine obligation to fight the pandemic.
This is therefore a major setback for Joe Biden, who had just cashed his first major legislative victory with the adoption in Congress on Friday of his infrastructure investment plan.
In its decision, the federal court of appeals for Texas ruled that the plaintiffs had “given arguments suggesting that there are serious constitutional and procedural problems” with the government text. The latter is therefore “suspended” pending an examination by the court on the merits.
“We will be able to challenge Biden’s unconstitutional abuse of power in court,” Conservative Texas Governor Greg Abbott responded on Twitter.
Watch video