Tenley Carp Discusses Latest Federal Contractors Vaccine Mandate Updates in Government Executive

AGG partner and Government Contracts practice leader, Tenley Carp, was quoted in an April 15, 2022, article published by Government Executive discussing the latest updates in challenges to the vaccine mandate for federal contractors.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11^th Circuit held oral arguments for one of the challenges to the vaccine mandate for covered federal contractors on April 8.

“The 11^th Circuit acknowledged that the Biden administration has felt the impact of contracting delays due to COVID-19, but it did not expressly state that this meant that the administration had the authority to impose a COVID-19 vaccine mandate on federal contractor employees,” Tenley said. “In fact, one of the three judges expressly stated that it was ‘doubtful’ that the government had a strong enough case to overturn the lower court’s ruling, which halted the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractor employees.”

Tenley suggested that the ruling will likely be released a month or so after the arguments and that it might go 2-1 in favor of the government, similar to the 6^th Circuit’s earlier ruling on the OSHA vaccine mandate. While the case could end up before the Supreme Court, she doesn’t think the Court would reverse the 11^th Circuit’s ruling if it goes in favor of the government.

To read the full article, please click here.