Aderholt slams Biden’s private employer vaccine mandate — ‘taking away individual freedoms with the stroke of a pen’

U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Haleyville) on Thursday blasted President Joe Biden’s planned vaccine mandate, which would reportedly affect over 100 million people.

The president’s “action plan,” by way of an order from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), forces companies that employ over 100 workers to require its employees to be vaccinated or undergo weekly virus testing, according to The Associated Press.

Additionally, Biden intends to sign an executive order, with no option to test out, requiring employees of the executive branch and federal government contractors to become inoculated against COVID-19.

The vaccine mandates come as concerns grow over the Delta variant, as the virus strain continues to metastasize across the nation and hospitalization rates increasingly rise.

The Department of Labor will require all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workforce is fully vaccinated or show a negative test at least once a week. Together, these companies employ more than 80 million workers. pic.twitter.com/I9GBp6KOpF

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) September 9, 2021

Aderholt took exception to Biden’s edict, saying the president holds no lawful authority to mandate such a sweeping order and he expects the judiciary to swiftly strike down the order.

“While I am certainly not anti-vaccine, in fact, I have been fully vaccinated, I don’t believe the federal government should be forcing employees and contractors of the executive branch to be vaccinated,” said Aderholt. “And I fail to find anywhere in the U.S. Constitution, or in powers granted to the executive branch by Congress, any authority to mandate that private companies require their employees to be vaccinated. I expect this mandate for private companies to be stopped very quickly by the courts.”

This is unconstitutional. The U.S. Constitution does not give the President this type of authority. No where in Article 2 of the Constitution will you find anything that even remotely gives the President this kind of power. https://t.co/3kCYjkRVHy

— Robert Aderholt (@Robert_Aderholt) September 9, 2021

The North Alabama congressman referred to a popular rallying cry progressives invoke relating to abortion rights, pointing to individuals’ personal autonomy regarding the choice to become vaccinated.

“These mandates are yet another example of President Biden taking away individual freedoms with the stroke of a pen,” he said. “Getting the vaccine should be a personal decision. As my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are fond of saying, ‘my body, my choice.’”

Conservatives and individual liberty advocates have remained in fierce objection to government-mandated vaccine requirements and other pandemic-related restrictions. Many believe the president’s newly-announced mandate will likely be met immediately with legal challenges.