On December 6, we noted on this blog post that because the injunction issued by the District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky on November 30 prohibiting the government from enforcing the government contractor vaccine mandate against contractors and subcontractors in Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee had national impact, a nationwide injunction seemed to make sense.
Today, the District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, which held a hearing on a motion for a preliminary injunction on December 3, did just that.
The President Likely Exceeded Statutory Authority
The order granted the motion for a preliminary injunction filed by the plaintiffs – Georgia, Alabama, Idaho, Kansas, South Carolina, Utah, and West Virginia – finding that they “will likely succeed in their claim that the President exceeded the authorization given to him by Congress through the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act (FPASA) when issuing Executive Order [EO] 14042.”
The order also granted in part the Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc.’s (ABC) motion to intervene (the court held that ABC’s Georgia chapter, which had also sought to intervene, had not presented evidence that “any specific member of that chapter would have standing”) and granted ABC’s motion for a preliminary injunction.