DES MOINES, Iowa – Gov. Kim Reynolds announced on Friday that the State of Iowa joined nine other states in a lawsuit challenging President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for all workers employed by a federal contractor.
“Today, I’m announcing that the State of Iowa is joining a federal lawsuit to challenge President Biden’s unprecedented use of the government to force every employee of every federal contractor in America, including thousands of Iowans, to take a vaccine against their wishes,” she said in a released statement.
“I believe the vaccine is the best defense against COVID-19, but no one should be forced to choose between making a living or standing up for their personal beliefs. As long as I am governor, the State of Iowa will always stand alongside Iowans and to be sure their freedoms are protected,” Reynolds added.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. Iowa joins the states of Missouri, Nebraska, Alaska, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming suing Biden, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, General Services Administration, White House Office of Management and Budget, Safer Federal Workforce Task Force, Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council, and officers associated with those agencies.
The complaint says the states brought the action “to challenge Defendants’ use of federal procurement statutes to create sweeping new power to issue decrees over large swaths of the U.S. economy and take over areas of traditional state power.”
“Through Executive Order 14042, President Biden has arrogated to the Executive Branch the unilateral power to mandate that all employees of federal contractors be vaccinated. This power grab is sweeping in its scope. Employees of federal contractors constitute one-fifth of the total U.S. workforce. And the mandate goes so far as to demand vaccination even from employees who work entirely within their own home. That is unconstitutional, unlawful, and unwise,” the complaint reads.
The plaintiff states claim harm since each state has multiple state agencies directly affected by the mandate.
The complaint states that the Biden Administration mandate “infringes on rights that the Tenth Amendment guarantees the Plaintiff States by commandeering state officers to enforce federal policy.”
The plaintiff states also claim that the Biden Administration guidance’s “religious exemptions purport to preempt state Religious Freedom Restoration Act (State RFRA) laws and free exercise rights protected by state constitutions.”
They also state that the mandate interferes with state interests “to set their own laws regarding workplace issues that would otherwise apply to contractors within the States’ borders.”
The plaintiff states in their complaint also claim that the Biden Administration mandate is not consistent with the Procurement Act, or Procurement Policy Act, usurps states’ police powers, violates the anti-commandeering doctrine, violates the Administrative Procedures Act, violates the separations of power clause of the U.S. Constitution, violates the 10th Amendment and federalism, and represents an unconstitutional exercise of spending power.
Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller’s name was not listed with the state attorneys general who submitted the complaint, but is authorized to take part in the lawsuit at Reynolds’ request.
Read the complaint below:
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