Initially, it was thought to be too high of a hurdle for the legislature to overcome a two-thirds majority to override Gov. Kay Ivey’s call and use a legislative special session intended for reapportionment to respond to the federal vaccine mandate imposed by President Joe Biden back in September.

However, in the end, the legislature was able to overcome that and other obstacles to provide some relief for those whose jobs were threatened by the federal mandate.

State Sen. Tom Butler (R-Madison) said he attributed the bills, SB9 and SB15, to a desire to respond to a public grassroots effort.

During an appearance on Mobile radio FM Talk 106.5, Butler expressed his hope the legislature’s work offered aid to Attorney General Steve Marshall’s legal challenges, as well.

“[I]n response to the public’s demand — this is where this came from — this is really a grassroots, public boiling up to the legislature, the bad effects of the Biden administration jumping down our throat, forcing everybody to get vaccines whether they wanted them or not, trying to take a vaccine that in my opinion was just released under emergency use authorization not having gone under the traditional scientific testing of the vaccines,” he said. “I think there were a lot of people who had legitimate concerns of not wanting that. They felt like their personal liberty was at stake. The legislature agreed with them. And I think we have finally worked out two bills that were the best we could do with the time limits we had. I’m not sure if some of these issues won’t be revisited in the near future when we go back into session in January.”

“But this was actually a grassroots effort that boiled up from the public,” Butler continued. “When you threaten people jobs, which is absolutely wrong by the Biden administration, that somebody has got to act. The Tenth Amendment is one that I really like, along with the Second Amendment and the First Amendment. The Tenth Amendment is one of my top amendments. This is a total violation of the Tenth Amendment, but the federal court seems to ignore it quite a bit. But the legislature and the state, several states in the country are trying to respond to actually go to court, and when there’s a disagreement with the federal government and state government, the federal courts are going to be the venue where everything has to be resolved. Hopefully, we give Attorney General [Steve] Marshall some ammunition he can use in federal court.”

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Alabama, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly, and host of Mobile’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. on FM Talk 106.5.