A US federal court upheld Friday, November 12 the suspension of the vaccine obligation for employees of large companies, desired by the Biden administration.
The three judges of the New Orleans Court of Appeal have notably declared that the vaccination obligation "
greatly exceeds
" the authority of the administration.
This decision comes after a similar judgment, handed down last week, which suspended this measure.
This aims to force tens of millions of employees of companies of more than 100 people to be vaccinated against Covid-19 by January 4, under penalty of having to undergo very regular tests.
An obligation which, according to the administration, would concern more than two-thirds of the country's workforce, which the court criticized as "
staggering and excessively broad
".
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According to the court ruling, which did not rule on the merits, this measure may not be constitutional.
It "
threatens to infringe substantially on the liberty of the reluctant beneficiaries (...) who must choose between their job and their sting,
" said Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt.
“
From economic uncertainty to workplace conflicts, the mere specter of this obligation has contributed to countless economic upheavals in recent months,
” he further said.
A major test for Joe Biden
The court had been seized by several states - Texas, Louisiana, South Carolina, Utah and Mississippi - as well as by several businesses and religious groups. Even if it is only a suspension at this point, it remains a sizable test for Democratic President Joe Biden, who had just recorded his first major legislative victory with the passage on Friday in the Congress of its infrastructure investment plan. "
Vaccination is the best way out of this pandemic
", commented Joe Biden in a statement released Thursday, assuring that he would "have
preferred to avoid this obligation
". "
Too many people remain unvaccinated for us to be able to get out permanently
",he had estimated.
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The suspended text leaves it to the employer to take the measures it deems appropriate, including disciplinary ones, against those who are resistant to the vaccine and to regular tests.
Companies that do not enforce the obligation are exposed, according to this text, to a fine ranging from 13,000 to 136,000 dollars.
But in the country of individual freedoms, this American version of the health pass provokes an outcry in the Republican opposition, which denounces a "
dictatorship
".
As of mid-November, about 68% of the US population, and 81% of adults, had received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
