The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) today reached a settlement with a group of federal employees and contractors who sued the Biden administration in December 2021 over federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
The settlement “marks a significant victory for individual rights and serves as a powerful, implicit acknowledgment of the government’s overreach,” Feds for Freedom, one of the groups that sued the government, said in a press release.
Under the settlement, the U.S. government must expunge the COVID-19 vaccine status records of federal employees. The settlement also prohibits future discrimination based on vaccine status and reimburses a portion of Feds For Freedom’s legal expenses.
Feds For Freedom declined to reveal any other terms of the settlement, which was not made public.
The vaccine mandate for federal workers, issued in an executive order on Sept. 9, 2021, required approximately 3.5 million federal workers to receive COVID-19 vaccines by Nov. 22, 2021, or face disciplinary action or termination.
Feds For Freedom, formerly known as Feds For Medical Freedom, is a grassroots organization with about 6,000 members throughout the federal civil service. The group’s lawsuit against the Biden administration led to a nationwide injunction in January 2022 that paused the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal workers.
Kevin McAfee, vice president of Feds For Freedom, said the settlement provides justice to the approximately 1,000 federal employees who participated in the lawsuit, including federal workers who were denied religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccination.
He said:
“A significant amount of our members have a deeply held religious belief that was under assault by the administration through the unconstitutional mandates. This drive fueled our fight and helped us see this through to the end. Yet, it will never truly erase or make up for the harms done to federal employees caused by the government’s illegal actions.”
The federal government did not admit wrongdoing, but the settlement terms “represent a tacit acknowledgment of the harm caused by the Biden mandate,” Feds For Freedom said.
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management has 60 days to issue a directive mandating the destruction of all information related to federal employees’ COVID-19 vaccine status, non-compliance with the mandate, or exemption requests from personnel files, unless an employee opts out, according to the settlement.
The agreement contains “transformative measures to rectify past harms” and “delivers unprecedented protections for federal workers and sets a critical precedent for safeguarding personal medical choices, religious freedoms, and Constitutional rights,” Feds For Freedom stated.
Kim Mack Rosenberg, general counsel for Children’s Health Defense, said the outcome “carries with it significant protections for federal workers.” She added:
“As some of the authoritarian measures put in place by the Biden administration continue to be rolled back, federal employees have greater assurances that their individual healthcare decisions will remain private and will not impact employment — as should be the case for every American.
“COVID-19 mandates did tremendous damage. This settlement is a positive step in righting some of those wrongs. I hope it has a far-reaching impact and resonance beyond federal workers.”
Other parties to the lawsuit included AFGE Local 918, a union representing employees in the Federal Protective Service and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and several other individuals and federal contractors.
“We are proud of the outcome its members have waited years to realize,” McAfee said. “Individual rights are something the founding fathers enshrined in our Constitution, and our members knew they had to stand up to keep those rights intact.”
Lawsuit Shows ‘Americans Can Resist Government Overreach’
The settlement marks the conclusion of a lawsuit that weaved through the legal system for nearly four years.
A series of appeals followed the January 2022 injunction that paused the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal employees and contractors.
In February 2022, a federal appeals court refused to reinstate the mandate. In April 2022, a federal court reinstated the mandate—however, the White House delayed its enforcement pending an appeal in the case.
In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the injunction—and two other cases challenging the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates—and sent the case back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. The Supreme Court ruled the injunction was moot because the federal government had rescinded the mandates.
McAfee credited the organization’s legal counsel, Boyden Gray PLLC, and the ongoing resolve of the organization’s volunteers, for their efforts in compelling the DOJ to settle.
“Continuing on their path would simply mean one defeat after another,” McAfee said, referring to the federal government.
McAfee said Feds For Freedom is still involved in other individual and class action lawsuits challenging the government’s vaccine mandates.
“Our members have demonstrated how Americans can resist government overreach,” McAfee said.
Mack Rosenberg said the fallout from the Biden administration mandates is extensive:
“Tactics employed by the Biden administration and employers in both the private and other sectors have dramatically affected individuals and their rights to bodily autonomy and choice concerning medical interventions, their privacy rights, human rights, as well as their employment.”
McAfee agreed, saying the “harms done by this mandate and by the COVID response did not end with our 2022 mandate injunction.” He added:
“Employees continued to be singled out for refusing the shot due to religious and medical reasons, barred from doing their jobs, coerced into testing and masking due to vaccination status, investigated for failure to comply with unlawful orders, labeled ‘insider threats,’ forcibly removed from buildings and key positions, pressured to act against their conscience and more.
“For the federal government to now be settling — this is a huge, though quiet, admission of wrongdoing.”
In its statement, Feds for Freedom said it will “rigorously monitor” the Office of Personnel Management and all federal agencies to ensure full compliance with the settlement and will assist federal workers in submitting Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act requests to verify that the records have been removed.
“There’s no certainty that this will deter future administrations from imposing similar unconstitutional mandates,” McAfee said.
