Eleventh Circuit Refuses to Issue Injunction in Florida’s Challenge to Vaccination Requirement for Health Care Workers
- December 10, 2021
A divided Eleventh Circuit panel refused December 5 to grant the state of Florida an injunction from an interim final rule requiring health care workers in hospitals and other settings that participate in Medicare and Medicaid to be vaccinated for COVID-19.
The appeals court, which issued a lengthy opinion on December 6 detailing its decision to deny the injunction, comes after two federal courts blocked the Biden administration from implementing the vaccination requirement for health care workers.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri granted a preliminary injunction to ten states after finding the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) likely exceeded its statutory authority in issuing the interim final rule (86 Fed. Reg. 61555), which requires health care workers to get vaccinated by January 4.
Shortly after, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana enjoined the vaccine mandate in the remaining states not covered under the injunction granted by the Missouri federal district court.
CMS indicated December 2 that it will not enforce the vaccination requirement for health care workers while the court ordered injunctions are in place.
Florida also had initiated a lawsuit challenging the interim final rule, but a Florida federal district court denied a preliminary injunction, finding the state failed to show irreparable harm. After the district court ruled, Florida notified the court that the state had since enacted a new statute barring all employers, including the government, from imposing COVID-19 vaccine requirements on their workers. The district court, however, in a second order still refused to grant injunctive relief, holding the state failed to establish a substantial likelihood of success on the merits or a substantial risk of irreparable injury.
Despite the nationwide injunction put in place by the Louisiana federal district court, the state urged the Eleventh Circuit to rule on its appeal, noting that the nationwide injunction issued by the Louisiana federal district court could be stayed or narrowed.
The Eleventh Circuit concluded that the nationwide injunction didn’t moot the instant action. The appeals court found a “reasonable expectation existed” that the Fifth Circuit, in reviewing the Louisiana federal district court decision, would “at the very least, do away with the nationwide aspect” of the injunction.
The appeals court then held that the state failed to establish a substantial likelihood it would succeed on the merits of its claim that CMS lacked statutory authority to issue the vaccination requirement, that the agency should not have bypassed notice-and comment-rulemaking, and that the rule was arbitrary and capricious.
The appeals court also found Florida did not establish that it would face irreparable harm absent the injunction.
Florida v. Department of Health and Human Servs., No. 21-14098-JJ (11th Cir. Dec. 6, 2021).