UTAH (ABC4) – A new lawsuit against President Biden’s vaccine mandate has local ties to Utah. The suit goes after the mandate that businesses with 100 or more employees require their staff to be vaccinated.
On Monday, railroad workers union, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division-International Brotherhood of Teamsters filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court, District of Utah.
The lawsuit claims the federal government overstepped its bounds by issuing this rule.
“In our constitutional system, it starts with the individual, the sovereignty of the individual. And then beyond that, it’s the state and never do you get to the federal government. And if by any chance, you got to a federal government making this decision, it’s certainly not one person in the person of a president issuing edicts about fitness for employment or about medical procedures that you have to have,” said attorney Ken Ivory, who is representing the union in the lawsuit.
The state of Utah joined several other states in filing a similar lawsuit in early November. Since filing the lawsuits, the federal court has put a hold on the mandate, which was set to go into effect on Jan. 4.
Co-counsel John Howard told ABC4 they chose to file a suit in Utah for a reason.
“Of all the states that I have spent some time in and worked in, Utahns tend to be people more attuned to the concept of individual freedom,” said Howard.
It’s a concept Ivory says has been on the minds of many and has much more to do with their latest lawsuit than the vaccine itself.
“There is nothing more essential to our being than controlling our health. Controlling our body,” said Ivory.
