Florida files lawsuit against Biden administration to challenge vaccine mandate for federal contractors

DeSantis announces Florida lawsuit against Biden administration to challenge federal contractor vaccine mandate

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Attorney General Ashley Moody hold a press conference at the Florida Air Museum in Lakeland to announce their lawsuit against the Biden administration to challenge their coronavirus vaccine mandate for federal contractors.

LAKELAND, Fla. - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday announced that the state has filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration to challenge the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors.

DeSantis and Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody made the announcement in Lakeland at the Florida Air Museum.

Fox News reports that the lawsuit was filed against President Joe Biden, NASA, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, and officials within the White House Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Defense over the mandates, which require all workers in the executive branch be vaccinated against COVID-19, and require federal contractors to mandate vaccinations and ensure workers are fully vaccinated by Dec. 8.

The state's lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in the middle district of Florida's Tampa division Thursday morning, argues that NASA, and others "frequently contracts with Florida, has current contractual relationships with Florida, and is and will continue to seek to impose the Biden administration’s unlawful requirements to Florida."

"Because the government’s unlawful vaccine requirement seeks to interfere with Florida’s employment policies and threaten Florida with economic harm and the loss of federal contracts, the State seeks relief from this Court," the lawsuit states.

The governor previously had threatened legal action, saying he believed the mandate would lose in court.

"We think the state of Florida has standing to do it," DeSantis said. "We also know businesses that we’re going to work with to contest it."

The governor also said Florida has "a responsibility at the state level to do whatever we need to do to protect Floridians from mandates that could result in them losing their jobs."

DeSantis and Biden have taken opposite stances on vaccine and mask mandates. While the president issued a mask mandate on federal grounds soon after taking office, DeSantis barred local mask mandates in Florida.

Nearly 70% of U.S. adults have received both vaccine doses, while more than 60% of all Americans have received at least the first dose.

In June, 99.5% of all COVID-19 deaths were of unvaccinated people. There have been a total of 14,115 U.S. deaths as a result of breakthrough cases, or COVID-19 cases that occurred in vaccinated individuals, and 70% of those vaccinated individuals were older than 65. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has noted that no COVID-19 vaccine is 100% effective against the virus.

Fox News contributed to this report.