Alabama Governor Kay Ivey (R) ordered state agencies to resist President Joe Biden’s federal vaccine mandate and other orders on Monday.
Ivey issued an executive order directing state agencies to work with the Alabama attorney general’s office on legal challenges to Biden’s federal mandates. The governor also exempted state agencies from state laws that would require an agency work with the government on mandating an individual be vaccinated or an employer require his employees be vaccinated.
Ivey’s order stops short of directing state agencies to resist the mandates altogether, however. The agencies are still required to enforce the mandates in line with federal law, but each agency must “take all practical steps to notify the affected business or individual that the State of Alabama does not approve, condone, or otherwise endorse the imposition of such a penalty.”
“The federal government’s outrageous overreach has simply given us no other option, but to begin taking action, which is why I am issuing this executive order to fight these egregious covid-19 vaccine mandates,” Ivey said in a statement. “Alabamians – and Americans alike – should and must have the choice to roll up their sleeves to get this shot and certainly not forced by government. While President Biden laughs at the idea of protecting your freedoms, I will continue fighting for Alabama businesses and their employees.”
The deciding fight over Biden’s mandates will take place in the courts, Ivey said.
“If the federal government presses on with these new federal mandates, then the Biden White House has once again failed the American people,” the governor continued. “As I have stated, no doubt, this will be challenged in federal courts. I am already working in concert with Attorney General Steve Marshall, because Alabama is standing firm in this fight. This latest move by the federal government is what I believe is an illegal overreach, and I am confident we will win the battle in the courts.”
“I am adamantly opposed to federal mandates related to the covid-19 vaccine and adamantly opposed to state mandates related to the covid-19 vaccine, plain and simple. As long as I am your governor, the state of Alabama will not force anyone to take a covid-19 vaccine,” she continued. “Through today’s order, the state of Alabama is making our position on this issue crystal clear. A state law in response to President Biden is not enough. The courts are where this will be resolved. Today is one step in this fight, but certainly not the last.”
“Alabamians are overwhelmingly opposed to these outrageous, Biden mandates, and I stand firmly with them,” Ivey concluded.
Arizona filed the first state legal challenge to Biden’s mandates, which require all federal employees and contractors to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and requires all private businesses with at least 100 employees to force all their workers either be vaccinated or be tested weekly for COVID-19.
“The federal government cannot force people to get the COVID-19 vaccine. The Biden Administration is once again flouting our laws and precedents to push their radical agenda,” Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said in a statement. “There can be no serious or scientific discussion about containing the spread of COVID-19 that doesn’t begin at our southern border.”
“Under our Constitution, the President is not a king who can exercise this sort of unbridled power unilaterally. And even George III wouldn’t have dreamed that he could enact such sweeping policies by royal decree alone,” Brnovich added.