Arizona filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration over vaccine mandates on Tuesday, becoming the first state to do so.
The state's Attorney General Mark Brnovich argued that the administration is exhibiting an “unmistakable” favoritism of illegal aliens over American citizens and that it "is one of the greatest infringements upon individual liberties, principles of federalism, and separation of powers ever attempted by an American President."
"President Biden will soon require a majority of private businesses, federal employees, federal contractors, and virtually all healthcare providers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine or lose their jobs. However, migrants who cross the southern border illegally are not subject to any vaccination requirements even when released directly into the United States - where most will remain," the attorney general's office said in a press release. "This reflects an unmistakable—and unconstitutional—brand of favoritism in favor of illegal migrants." I promised Arizonans that we would not stand for the Biden Administration's egregious federal overreach on vaccine mandates.
Today, we have filed the first lawsuit in the nation against the unconstitutional mandates. Arizona will not tolerate this assault on our sovereignty. pic.twitter.com/1eHAUX8GYs
— Mark Brnovich (@GeneralBrnovich) September 14, 2021
Brnovich added that the Equal Protection Clause favors "migrants that have crossed into the country illegally over legal U.S. citizens. The Biden Administration allows migrants to decline the vaccine, protecting their freedom and bodily autonomy more than American citizens."
Governors and attorney generals of multiple red states have vowed to fight after Biden announced that he was having the Department of Labor draft rules saying that “all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workforce is fully vaccinated or require any workers who remain unvaccinated to produce a negative test result on at least a weekly basis.”
Such a rule would impact at least 80 million workers.
“The federal government cannot force people to get the COVID-19 vaccine. The Biden Administration is once again flouting our laws and precedents to push their radical agenda,” Brnovich said in a statement. “There can be no serious or scientific discussion about containing the spread of COVID-19 that doesn’t begin at our southern border.”
Brnovich also noted that Biden is not a king who can use this type of sweeping unilateral power.
“Under our Constitution, the President is not a king who can exercise this sort of unbridled power unilaterally,” Brnovich said in the complaint. “And even George III wouldn’t have dreamed that he could enact such sweeping policies by royal decree alone.”
