DOJ To Expunge Employees’ COVID-19 Vaccination Records: Lawyers

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The government has agreed to a settlement that involves expunging records showing the COVID-19 vaccination status of employees, lawyers representing workers who sued said on Aug. 7.

Officials must expunge the records under the settlement and bar discrimination based on vaccine status, Feds for Freedom, the workers group, and its lawyers said in a statement.

An email to the Department of Justice attorney who filed a voluntary dismissal in the case on Thursday returned a message saying he is on leave until Aug. 11. The department’s media office did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

The formal settlement has not been entered on the court docket, but lawyers for Feds for Freedom said it includes the reimbursement of some of the legal fees incurred in the case the organization brought against the government over the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal workers.

Feds for Freedom sued the government in 2021, after President Joe Biden imposed COVID-19 vaccine requirements on all federal workers. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown entered a preliminary injunction in January 2022 that blocked the mandate as the case proceeded, finding that Biden lacked the authority to issue such a mandate.

A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit several months later lifted the injunction, saying the federal workers who sued should have taken their complaints to an administrative board rather than the courts. The full appeals court in 2023 kept the mandate in place.

The Supreme Court in late 2023 vacated the rulings in the case because Biden had rescinded the mandate, meaning none of the decisions will serve as precedent in future cases.

Brown in March vacated the injunction. He also directed the government and plaintiffs to file a status report.

The government in filings since then requested extensions to respond, saying officials were discussing appropriate next steps for the litigation and that they were dealing with staffing issues.

Brown’s last order told the parties to enter a proposed briefing schedule no later than Aug. 7.

Assistant U.S. Attorney James Gillingham on Aug 7 said in a stipulation that the parties had agreed to the dismissal of the case with prejudice.

Biden defended the mandate, saying it prevented infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. President Donald Trump has criticized COVID-19 vaccine mandates, saying he supported people choosing not to receive a vaccine. In February, he signed an order that bars funding to schools that require COVID-19 vaccination.