The following article by Jeff Palermo appeared on November 5, 2021 on Louisiana Radio News Network.

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry is leading a multi-state lawsuit to derail President Biden’s executive vaccine mandate order for federal contractors and a separate suit challenging the vaccine mandate for businesses with more than 100 employees. Landry pulls no punches in his opposition to the requirement.

“His mandate that all federal government contractors be vaccinated against COVID-19 is not only unlawful but vastly overreaching,” said Landry.

Landry says the mandate will directly impact the Bayou State, noting that about 60 percent of the state’s budget is federal money, impacting both local governments and institutions of higher learning.

Landry says when he first heard President Biden’s vaccine mandate announcement, he thought perhaps Biden had forgotten that we are a republic and not a monarchy.

“Surely he knew that this decision of an individual to get a shot is a medical procedure and not his to make,” said Landry.

Landry says that as the state’s chief legal officer, he’s suing to forbid the federal government from making medical choices for the state’s residents.

Brian Trosclair, who employs nearly 500 people at 15 grocery stores he owns in Louisiana and Mississippi, is among those suing in federal court to strike down the Biden vaccine mandate on private-sector employees. He notes those workers were hailed as heroes during the height of the pandemic.

“Now they are putting me in the position of making them get a vaccine against their personal beliefs or I have to fire them and put them out of work and they can’t provide for their families,” said Trosclair.

Trosclair says the vaccine mandate goes beyond the federal government intervening in the health choices of his workers and potentially losing employees because of the mandate.

“We are already don’t have enough labor, the supply chains are broken and we are getting 50-to-70 percent of what we are ordering, we have massive inflation that’s only going to get worse,” said Trosclair.

The Biden Administration says the mandatory vaccine requirement for many businesses and federal contractors will result in more people getting vaccinated, which will help end the pandemic.

Read the full article on Louisiana Radio News Network.