The following is from Children’s Health Defense.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) reached a settlement with a group of federal employees and contractors who sued the Biden administration over its Covid-19 vaccine mandate for federal workers.

The lawsuit, filed in December 2021 by Feds For Freedom, formerly known as Feds For Medical Freedom, challenged Biden’s September 2021 executive order requiring all executive branch employees and contractors to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19. Plaintiffs argued the mandate violated federal law and individual rights by forcing employees to choose between their livelihoods and an unwanted medical procedure.

In January 2022, a federal judge in Texas blocked the mandate from being enforced. In April 2022, a federal court reinstated it, but the White House delayed enforcement while an appeal moved forward. In 2023, the US Supreme Court vacated the injunction — along with two other cases challenging the Biden administration’s Covid-19 vaccine mandates — and sent the matter back to the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling the injunction was moot because the federal government had already rescinded the mandates.

Under the settlement agreement, the administration will purge vaccine-status records from federal employees’ personnel files unless the employee opts out. The government is also barred from taking any future discriminatory action against employees or contractors based on vaccination status.

The settlement includes partial reimbursement of plaintiffs’ legal fees.

According to a press release from Feds For Freedom, the settlement also affirms that employees and contractors will not face future mandates of this kind without new legal authority, and the removal of records will apply retroactively to the period the mandate was in effect.

“This settlement means that the government cannot simply turn around and impose the same kind of mandate again without going through proper legal channels,”
— Feds For Freedom press release

The lawsuit was one of several legal challenges to the Biden administration’s Covid-19 mandates, which also faced opposition from private sector employees, military service members, and health care workers.

For more information, read the full article here.