AG Steve Marshall files lawsuit to block Head Start vaccine mandate

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Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall Mickey Welsh/The Montgomery Advertiser via AP)

Attorney General Steve Marshall joined 22 other attorneys general and filed a lawsuit to block the Biden administration’s Head Start mandate for program employees to vaccinate against COVID, and for pre-school pupils to wear face masks, or risk losing all federal funding. The lawsuit argues that the mandate conflicts with Alabama’s vaccine passport law and that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services doesn’t have the legal authority to impose the mandate.

The lawsuit was filed in the Western District of Louisiana. Attorney General Marshall joined with Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry to bring this action, along with his colleagues from Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

The mandate requires all personnel to be “fully vaccinated” and wear masks at all times, while also requiring students ages two years and older to wear masks. Two of Alabama’s state agencies—the Alabama Department of Human Resources and the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education—would be affected by the mandate, as would all of Alabama’s Head Start teachers, staff, volunteers, and students.

“The Biden administration clearly has no plans to back down from its errant pursuit of nationwide vaccination,” Marshall stated. “Likewise, the State of Alabama has no plans to back down from its righteous pursuit of nationwide injunctions.”

Marshall added, “The victims of these mandates will not be ‘the unvaccinated,’ as President Biden would like you to believe. Rather, the harm will be felt by the rural pre-school children who will be left with no place to go if their centers are shut down. A program that the federal government created is at risk of being destroyed by those who claim to care most about its participants.”