Unions Test Vaccine Rule in Strategic Liberal Court Filings (3)

Unions have challenged the Biden administration’s Covid-19 vaccine-or-testing mandate for employers in six federal appeals courts—an apparent effort to support the emergency rule, not block it.

The union lawsuits were filed in three appeals courts that have a majority of Democratic-appointed judges and one with a partisan split, improving the chances a circuit panel will look favorably on the administration’s mandate. New litigation was also filed in two circuits with Republican-appointed majorities.

Overall, the filings signal a strategy of adding liberal or split venues to the pool of circuit courts that will be considered in a lottery to determine which ...