North Dakota and 10 other states have filed suit against the Biden Administration’s mandate that private businesses with more than 100 employees require those workers to be vaccinated for COVID-19.
The petition was filed in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem called it another federal overreach, that violates the Constitution.
"The federal government doesn't have a right to federalize public health policy," Stenehejem said in an interview. "Those are decisions, under our Constitution, that belong under the 10th Amendment — to individual states, or to the citizens of those states."
Stenehjem says the lawsuit contends the new OSHA requirement commandeering private business violates the Constitution.
"It's done pursuant to no statute enacted by Congress, even if they could have enacted such a statute," Stenehjem said.
Stenehjem said the argument could also be made that this could have the opposite effect of what was intended.
"This kind of a policy is only going to serve to further cause people who do not want to get vaccinated to dig in their heels," Stenehjem said.
OSHA’s Emergency Temporary Standard takes effect in January.
