On Tuesday, November 30, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana granted a preliminary injunction effectively preventing the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) from enforcing its vaccine mandate rule nationwide. While the Court’s ruling was based on a lawsuit brought by only 14 states, given the scope of the mandate and the previous injunction granted Monday, November 29, by another District Court preventing enforcement in 10 other states, the Louisiana court indicated that its ruling would cover all remaining states not already under the previous injunction “due to the need for uniformity.”
While the Biden Administration has indicated that it plans to appeal the rulings, as of now, CMS is prevented from requiring compliance with the vaccination mandate’s Dec. 6 deadline for most healthcare workers to have first round shots completed. The final deadline for full vaccinations was set at Jan. 4.
This court ruling follows a three-state (Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee) injunction against enforcement of a vaccine mandate for federal contractors and a nationwide injunction on enforcement of the similar mandate issued by The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA.) Lutheran Services in America has submitted comments on the OSHA mandate. Lutheran Services in America has prepared a summary of the CMS rule, and will be submitting comments to CMS sharing questions and concerns from our network members.
Please contact Sarah Dobson, Senior Director of Public Policy and Advocacy, at sdobson@lutheranservices.org to share your input as we prepare our official comments on the CMS mandate.
For further information, please contact Sarah Dobson, Senior Director of Public Policy and Advocacy, at sdobson@lutheranservices.org or Josh Dubensky, Director of Public Policy and Advocacy, LSA-DN, at jdubensky@lutheranservices.org.
