Trucking, Retail Groups Sue Biden Over Vaccine Mandate

National groups representing retail, truckers and independent businesses sued the White House over its vaccine mandate Wednesday.

The American Trucking Associations (ATA), the National Federation of Independent Business and the National Retail Federation filed the lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Wednesday.

“This is not a case about the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, which are a marvel of modern medicine … This is a case about American businesses that do not want to face the immediate irreparable harm of losing employees, incurring substantial and unrecoverable compliance costs, and worsening already fragile supply chains and labor markets,” the groups wrote in the court filings.

The American Trucking Associations along with the Mississippi Trucking Association and the Texas Trucking Association said that the mandate “could have devastating impacts on the supply chain and the economy,” and that the administration has “unfortunately, chosen to move forward despite those warnings,” ATA president and chief executive Chris Spear said in a statement.

“We are asking the court to stay implementation of the mandate because we believe the Occupational Safety and Health Administration did not satisfy the statutory requirements for issuing this Emergency Temporary Standard instead of going through the proper rulemaking process,” Nicholas Geale, ATA vice president of workforce policy said in a statement.

National Retail Federation president and chief executive Matthew Shay said in a statement that the December deadline to show proof of workers vaccination status along with the January deadline to start testing employees is “both unworkable and virtually impossible.”

The National Federation of Independent Business said in a statement that the mandates restricted the freedom of small business owners and called the mandate a “clear example of administrative overreach.”

White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Tuesday that the mandate would help to prevent labor shortages by preventing employees from becoming sick, CNBC reported.