The U.S. Supreme Court vacated the rulings in three lower court cases that had challenged the Biden administration’s federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal agency employees and military service personnel. The decision by the nation’s highest court to grant the Biden administration’s request to set aside the previous judicial rulings rejecting a federal COVID vaccine mandate erases the legal precedent set by the lower courts.
The Appellate courts were split in their decisions about the COVID vaccine mandate with those challenging the federal vaccine mandate succeeding in some cases and the Biden administration prevailing in other cases.
The Supreme Court majority instructed the lower court to dismiss the cases as moot after the vaccine mandates were rescinded. By wiping out the historical record, the Supreme Court has ensured that any legal challenges to future vaccine mandates will be cases of first impression without precedent.1 2
Lower Court Rulings on COVID Vaccine Mandate Were Conflicting
The rulings in the lower court cases that were vacated by the Supreme Court ruling includes a case brought by the organization Feds for Freedom, whose members were challenging the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for federal agency employees. In this case, the Appeals court agreed with the district court ruling, which issued a preliminary injunction against the government finding that the court system was the proper venue for the dispute and that the president did not have the authority to implement the vaccine mandate.3
The second case involved a federal worker who argued a previous COVID illness left him with immunity from the virus and, therefore, he should be exempt from having to get the vaccine and that the mandate exceeded the President’s authority. The Appeals court sided with the Biden administration’s defense, finding that the employee needed to go through Merit Systems Protection Board before bringing a lawsuit.4
In the final case, a federal district court in Ohio temporarily blocked the federal vaccine mandate for U.S. Air Force service members who objected to the vaccine on religious grounds and prevented the military from taking disciplinary action against them.5 6
Biden Administration Seeks to Vacate Lower Court Rulings Rejecting COVID Vaccine Mandate
The Biden administration, along with one federal employee plaintiff who lost at the Appellate level, asked the Supreme Court to issue a Munsingwear vacatur, which would wipe the lower court rulings due to the issue being moot. The parties challenging the Biden administration claimed that a Munsingwear vacatur ruling would not be an appropriate or equitable remedy as the Biden administration chose to make its own case moot by rescinding the vaccine requirement.7
A Muningswear vacatur is an equitable remedy that may be issued by the Supreme Court when a case pending review by the highest court becomes moot, which prevents an appellate review of the decision. An equitable doctrine is typically awarded when a legal remedy such as monetary damages is not sufficient. Equitable doctrines include injunctions in which a party is ordered to do or stop doing a specific action, specific performance where a party is required to fulfill its promise as near as possible, or vacatur, which sets aside a judgment.8
The Supreme Court explained that a Musingwear vacatur is…
…. the established practice of the Court in dealing with a civil case from a court in the federal system which has become moot while on its way here or pending our decision on the merits is to reverse or vacate the judgment below and remand with a direction to dismiss.9
However, there are a number of exceptions to this equitable doctrine, such as when the party seeking the vacatur is the party responsible for the case becoming moot. In U.S. Bancorp Mortgage Co. v. Bonner Mall Partnership, the Supreme Court found:
Equitable principles have always been implicit in this Court’s exercise of the vacatur power, and the principal equitable factor to which the Court has looked is whether the party seeking vacatur caused the mootness by voluntary action.10
The parties arguing against the issuing of a Munsingwear vacatur said:
Petitioners ask this Court to endorse a ‘heads we win, tails you get vacated’ version of Munsingwear, where they can litigate to the hilt in both district and circuit court and—only if they lose—then decline to seek substantive review from this Court and instead moot the case and ask this Court to erase the circuit court loss from the books.11
The Biden administration argued that the vaccine mandate was rescinded due to changing public health circumstances and not as a way to erase the courts record on vaccine mandates.12
One Supreme Court Justice Dissents from Ruling Upholding Federal COVID Vaccine Mandate
The unsigned Supreme Court decision vacated the rulings against the mandates and ordered the lower court to vacate the preliminary injunction against the Biden administration as moot13 Only one Justice, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson explained the decision.14 She agreed with the other justices that the lower court ruling should be vacated in one decision and dissented in the other two cases, explaining that the government failed to “establish equitable entitlement” to the vacatur.15
In a recent case, Justice Jackson argued in a dissenting opinion that the Supreme Court may vacate a lower court’s rulings in a case that has become moot when an unfair result is faced by the losing party who can’t appeal the decision. She explained that it is an exceptional remedy that should only be granted when equity demands it.16
Justice Jackson wrote:
Later, this Court clarified that this “Munsingwear vacatur” remedy is available only in “extraordinary” or “exceptional” cases where a party meets the burden of demonstrating equitable entitlement to vacatur in an otherwise moot case.17
Justice Jackson further clarified that the court has long recognized that a Munsingwear vacatur is generally not a fair ruling when the party requesting the vacatur, “played a role in rendering the case moot.”
Justice Jackson wrote:
As a general matter, I believe that a party who claims equitable entitlement to vacatur must explain what harm—other than having to accept the law as the lower court stated it—flows from the inability to appeal the lower court decision.18
Ultimately, Justice Jackson did not find that the government, “established equitable entitlement” to the vacatur and was not warranted in two of the three cases.19
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Click here to view References:1 Cole D. Covid-19 vaccine mandate cases for executive branch employees and troops thrown out by Supreme Court. CNN Dec. 11, 2023.
2 Schonfeld Z. Supreme Court wipes rulings on federal employee, military vaccine mandates. The Hill Dec. 13, 2023.
3 Ibid.
4 Stieber Z. Biden Scores Win as Supreme Court Throws Out Federal COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate Cases. The Epoch Times Dec. 11, 2023.
5 Brelife B, Nguyen LM. Court Blocks Biden Admin From Punishing Unvaccinated Air Force Members. The Epoch Times July 15, 2022.
6 Stieber Z. Biden Scores Win as Supreme Court Throws Out Federal COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate Cases. The Epoch Times Dec. 11, 2023.
7 Schonfeld Z. Supreme Court wipes rulings on federal employee, military vaccine mandates. The Hill Dec. 13, 2023.
8 Equity. Legal Information Institute.
9 Milet P. Practice Pointer: Mootness and Munsingwear Vacatur. Scotus blog. June 10, 2008. Citing U.S. v. Munsingwear, Inc. 340 U.S. 36 (1950).
10 513 U.S. 18 (1994). U.S. Bancorp Mortgage Co. v. Bonner Mall Partnership.
11 Ibid.
12 Schonfeld Z. Supreme Court wipes rulings on federal employee, military vaccine mandates. The Hill Dec. 13, 2023.
13 Stieber Z. Biden Scores Win as Supreme Court Throws Out Federal COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate Cases. The Epoch Times Dec. 11, 2023.
14 Cole, D. Covid-19 vaccine mandate cases for executive branch employees and troops thrown out by Supreme Court. CNN. Dec. 11, 2023.
15 Stieber Z. Biden Scores Win as Supreme Court Throws Out Federal COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate Cases. The Epoch Times Dec. 11, 2023.
16 Dissent. Chapman v. Doe by Rothert. 143 S.Ct. 857 (2023).
17 Stieber Z. Biden Scores Win as Supreme Court Throws Out Federal COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate Cases. The Epoch Times Dec. 11, 2023.
18 Ibid.
19 Ibid.
33 Responses
There is no such thing as a safe vaccine. The federal government forced employees to subject themselves to extreme risk and harm. Most of us never cared what the politicians or judges thought, we remain firmly committed to not taking the covid non-vaccine. These people whom can not grasp such a simple concept as bodily autonomy and the right of the individual to make their own medical choices, do not represent We The People.
Exactly! thank you for the concise comment.
You forgot to say ” . . . subject themselves to DEATH.”
Keeping your God Center is our refuge.
FREEDOM OF VACCINATION CHOICE . . . No . . . Matter . . . What!
Peace.
Let’s also remember that Covid vaccines were never tested properly, and so were given Emergency Use Authorization status. Under E.U.A. status, a vaccine cannot be forced on anybody. Everyone, whether they are government employees, military, or civilians, have the right to refuse the vaccine and that’s the end of it. It’s bad enough that this Red Chinese poison has been foisted on U.S. Citizens in the first place, but it was followed up with lies from the so called federal government and it’s “expert” Fauci who admitted that he was wrong afterwards, about vaccines and masks. Now the military is trying to get the people they kicked out for not taking the poison, to come back. But the fact that the federal government was trying to get this court decision at the same time, shows that they’re going to sock it to the military again, and probably the rest of us as well. The Biden occupiers of the White House are out to ( in the words of Bill Gates) “depopulate” this nation through forced vaccinations to weaken it further than it already is. We already know they’re lying to us and it’s high time to peacefully resist, say no, and watch the federal squawking begin again. Buck buck buck.
Amen @Colarado!!!!!! But the people understand more than they let on….they love to control and power over many, but they themselves who made these atrocious mandates…didn’t even take that filth nor their family members.
The rule of law is dead in the US. Appalling. You have no right to your body (except to kill your baby), no right to movement, no right to due process, no right to a trial by an impartial jury with an impartial judge, to confront your accuser, to protection from illegal search and seizure . . . The biggest scam is standing . . . this allows the courts to ignore suits they don’t want to address – which coincidentally protect the establishment. You have no more fundamental rights that the court will protect in the US – any other comments by the court is lip service.
Judge by what they do, not by what they say they do. Interestingly, Soros over a decade ago said – regarding class warfare – what class warfare, we’ve won already. The system was already captured decades ago . . .
In future can articles be written in plain English and simplified for those of us who do not have a law degree. I consider myself fairly intelligent, but I don’t care to look up definitions. So now we all have to be jabbed??!! Is that the point?
They basically wiped out all lower court challenges and said there is now no precident so the next people to disagree with forced vaccination have to start from the beginning again. The court was too timid and afraid to take away the unconstitutional powers that the gov’t has grabbed/declared for themselves.
No matter when the War finally comes…..last thing will be on folks minds will be who is and who is NOT inoculated….be too busy worrying about a clean source of food, clean water, and shelter to hide from fall out.
I agree, I consider myself fairly intelligent, but this was a slog. I took away what the first replier to you got. It doesn’t appear to be a good thing. However, to Epoch Times’ credit, they reported it without bias or interpolation. Perhaps the Patriots and the good guys in S.C. (we DO have the Supreme Court last time I checked) know that there’s some legal reason this needs to be defined more clearly. It did seem that the lower-court rulings had contradictions in them. So a final Supreme Court ruling shutting down vaccine mandates would in theory definitively set a precedent for decades and maybe centuries to come. Could be good.
So there is no longer a precedent to reject mandates?
So unbelievably sad that we do not belong to God but to government!
We need a President that would NEVER force vaccines on us. Even people who had the Covid vaccine still contracted it, thus would wear a mask. So, why not just issue a mask mandate, not vaccine mandate.
we need a law that no president can reject giving the individual absolute autonomy of their medical choices
Masks are useless. Mask mandates are as useless as vaccine mandates. A mask mandate is just another method of having you demonstrate your allegiance to gov’t dictates. When the gov’t removes your bodily autonomy, they are removing your freedom, your constitutional rights. They are saying that you are their property.
I will never belong to anyone but GOD – Dear Lord, deliver us from evil – in GOD we Trust …
If you want to live, leave the military and federal employment. The next “vaccine,” will be an even bigger kill shot. Thanks for upholding communism SC, minus Ketanji Jackson.
Our inalienable rights are not awarded to us by government. We make a mistake when we expect the conglomeration of individuals who are supposed to “represent” our interests at any particular time, to align with the unchanging laws governing our existence. We decide what is done to our bodies and anyone or anything which conflicts with that, needs to be ignored or worked around.
It is the fact that individuals do not understand that, which is the problem. If even a sizable minority DID NOT COMPLY from the beginning of this charade, it would have been over very quickly. The “governing” minority need the majority in order to exist, not the other way around, which is apparently and regrettably something that most Americans don’t seem to understand.
Yes.
Hey Linda
I haven’t been on the cutting edge of this stuff lately so do me a favor and give me a little run down about this decision.
EAU reins supreme! I believe it is well established that there is a “warp speed” effort being pushed to develop RNA/DNA cell alternating injections for maintaining the allopathic medicine model as the disease treatment protocols for the 21st century. Billions and billions are being invested in this endeavor and the two major beneficiaries of this push is BARDA (DOD Biowarfare Institution) that has been prolific over the past 60 years and Big Pharma which has the task of mass producing the injection protocols. Moderna has already been identified as a CIA creation and is the bridge between the two major players. If they want to put the blame on Dr. Malone, then they should start by putting the blame on Dr. Arthur Hayes, Donald Rumsfeld’s go to guy for biowarfare in the 1970’s who experimented at Fort Detrick with glycinated chemicals to be more efficacious in destroying the enemy. Rumsfeld ran DOD the first time around in the 1970’s. He was so good at it; he got a repeat performance. Infiltrating, creating controversy and miss guiding those who are attempting to have the truth known about Covid and the injections is how you create confusion and discredit the efforts of the truth tellers. In the meantime, the massive marketing push to convince the American public that injections are good continues with masterful marketing efforts. Local paper ran the story “Good News” medical stories of 2023″ on Christmas Day extolling the injections and RSV and etc. Author was a Patient Advocate well-schooled by Big Pharma. Moderna and Pfizer are doing their share with TV commercials spinning the injections as being good. This effort will intensive in 2024 as the money people start demanding a return on their investment. If the FDA’s VAERS reporting system would be managed properly and the true extent of the harm caused was made public, then maybe rational medical research would prevail. Unfortunately, the FDA takes their marching orders from Big Pharma. Happy New Year? I pray! I wish everyone well in 2024. [email protected]
Unfortunately the FDA exists, because it shouldn’t, because the Constitution does not provide for a single. solitary. federal. alphabet. agency. to exist. They’re all unconstitutional and have NO authority under the Constitution to exist, let alone tell anyone what to do, let alone extort $ from the population and call it taxation.
We’re run by competing criminal gangs, nothing more. But, at the top it’s one gang, the Black Nobility, with one agenda. And they don’t ask for anyone’s permission. They just “make it so.” Unless/until those creatures are dealt with, we’re spitting in the wind.
Always about the loot…that is why the push was so aggressive..most of these legislators, congressman had a lot of stock in Pfizer, Moderna, Astrazenca, Johnson and Johnson. Like you said they want a big return on the money they put in this diabolic plot to disable and exterminate the human race! Gonna take a look at your substack page!
EAU Reigns supreme! I believe it is well established that there is a “warp speed” effort being pushed to develop RNA/DNA cell alternating injections for maintaining the allopathic medicine model as the disease treatment protocols for the 21st century. Billions and billions are being invested in this endeavor and the two major beneficiaries of this push is BARDA (DOD Biowarfare Institution) that has been prolific over the past 60 years and Big Pharma which has the task of mass producing the injection protocols. Moderna has already been identified as a CIA creation and is the bridge between the two major players. If they want to put the blame on Dr. Malone, then they should start by putting the blame on Dr. Arthur Hayes, Donald Rumsfeld’s go to guy for biowarfare in the 1970’s who experimented at Fort Detrick with glycinated chemicals to be more efficacious in destroying the enemy. Rumsfeld ran DOD the first time around in the 1970’s. He was so good at it; he got a repeat performance. Infiltrating, creating controversy and miss guiding those who are attempting to have the truth known about Covid and the injections is how you create confusion and discredit the efforts of the truth tellers. In the meantime, the massive marketing push to convince the American public that injections are good continues with masterful marketing efforts. Local paper ran the story “Good News” medical stories of 2023″ on Christmas Day extolling the injections and RSV and etc. Author was a Patient Advocate well-schooled by Big Pharma. Moderna and Pfizer are doing their share with TV commercials spinning the injections as being good. This effort will intensive in 2024 as the money people start demanding a return on their investment. If the FDA’s VAERS reporting system would be managed properly and the true extent of the harm caused was made public, then maybe rational medical research would prevail. Unfortunately, the FDA takes their marching orders from Big Pharma. Happy New Year? I pray! I wish everyone well in 2024. [email protected]
Also interesting you mentioned “Warp Speed” That was the project Trump spearheaded just before the shut downs “Operation Warp Speed” with all that 60 ghz tech that caused all the radiation sickness which caused the “FLU LIKE” symptoms.
Really pathetic they could not get this thing done for good! It appears to leave open the door to another vaccine mandate with allll the bs discarded so no precedent is set. Shame on the SC!! My son had his expensive class action Federal Employee lawsuit with thousands of members shut down because of what that effer Biden did by calling it off! May Biden annd every Supreme rot in hell for this!
The only people who ‘win’ in class action suits are the attorneys. For regular folks class action suits are an expensive way to spin your wheels in mud and make the rut deeper. There’s a man out in the interwebs who goes by the name ‘LegalMan’. I suggest you give him a listen.
The demons behind the scenes are in control of their human puppets.
You have no right not to be poisoned by global mass murderers who ignore evidence to keep their jobs.
So does this mean the court won’t hear cases of death or harm by these forced shots? I mean Biden blackmailed and bullied the entire country with these shots. Then Fauci lied his but off about them. Funny how other countries stopped them as soon as they found the extreme harm they were doing. Other countries are paying reparations….but not crooked America. I do not recognize my country. The people I grew up respecting and relying on have turned against the people. The news lies and cannot be trusted. Everything is bias, everyone is upside down. This administration has made America a laughing joke. No morals, no ethics, no care in the world except about their own pocketbooks because they sure don’t care about us. Covid was a lie. I’m not so sure what the agenda was other than mass murder or just to get control. Whatever it was USA lied to the people. We the people do not trust government at all. They have proven themselves crooked, narcisistic, and liars…not to mention traitors. So, whatever the court decides, I don’t care. They too are on the dole.
It has been that way since at least 1860. It has only grown inescapably apparent to many more people in the last 22 years. Welcome to the ‘new’ world order and another ‘great’ reset.
amen @Cherly
The Covid Vaccine is not a vaccine. It is a temporary “therapeutic agent” and should not be classified as a vaccine. It does not produce immunity or stop the spread. The change in classification is important and manufacturers use this classification to attain legal immunity. We need to lift all immunity for pharmaceutical companies. This was imposed by the Regan administration and is no longer useful or in the interest of public health. It is being abused at our peril.
YEP @ Pammy…..they found out about that (Big Dell Tree and Kennedy) when they filed that law suit and won ……Regan did that in 1984 or 86 ; lifting all liability , but on the premise that DHS & Big Pharma would do the safety studies every 2 years on what they manufactured…NEVER did any safety/efficacy studies for over 32 years!