The Sixth Circuit will now decide whether to permanently halt the Biden administration policy.
A federal appeals court with a GOP-appointed majority will decide the fate of President Joe Biden’s vaccine and testing requirements for private businesses, casting further doubt on the survival of a policy the White House says is central to the fight against Covid-19. More than two dozen lawsuits challenging the Biden policy were consolidated into one in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on Tuesday. Former presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump appointed 11 of the 16 judges on the bench, while presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama appointed five. The case against the Biden administration’s policy will be heard before a three-judge panel, but it is widely expected to ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit had already delayed the vaccine and testing requirements while it reviews their legal standing. Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt, in an opinion issued Friday, said the policy was « fatally flawed » and raised serious constitutional concerns. However, the Biden administration filed a request on Tuesday for the multidistrict litigation panel to consolidate the lawsuits in a single court through random selection.
