Nebraska’s attorney general is working with other attorneys general to challenge President Joe Biden’s new COVID-19 vaccine mandates, Nebraska’s governor said Sunday.
“He’s coordinating with the other attorneys general across the country who share similar views about the overreach,” Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“This is an egregious overreach of federal authority. And as we see what these rules are, we will be able to know exactly how we will be able to challenge them in court. I’m also talking with my colleagues around the country as well, the other governors who feel the way I do, and we’ll be working on other strategies,” he added.
Biden is, through an executive order released last week, forcing federal workers to get a COVID-19 vaccine unless they are approved for a religious or medical exemption. He’s also directed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to work up an order that would require private businesses with 100 or more employees to mandate vaccination.
Ricketts, a Republican, and 18 other governors immediately condemned the mandates, arguing they were the wrong approach to increase the uptake of COVID-19 vaccines. Some governors and attorneys general indicated that they would turn to the courts.
“I will pursue every legal option available to the state of Georgia to stop this blatantly unlawful overreach by the Biden administration,” Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, wrote on social media in the wake of Biden’s announcement.
Ricketts, asked when he would be going to court, said that would come when the exact rules are laid out.
“When we get an idea of what these rules exactly will be, we’ll know how to be able to attack it in court,” he said.
Biden administration officials have defended the mandates, asserting that they’re legal and would withstand scrutiny.
