Why The Daily Wire And ADF Are Partnering To Challenge Biden’s Vaccine Mandate

The vaccine mandate the Biden administration imposed is one of the more egregious abuses of federal power in recent memory. Nowhere does our Constitution confer upon the federal government authority to force private citizens to inject vaccines into their bodies. Nor does it allow the federal government to dragoon private employers, on pain of massive fines, into compelling that same result.

An absence of legal authority, however, seemingly poses no constraint on the administration’s ambition to decide for all Americans how they should protect themselves from COVID-19. When he announced the vaccine mandate, President Biden said his decision was “not about freedom or personal choice.” “My job as president,” Biden said, “is to protect all Americans.”

That gets it backwards. The Constitution confers only select, enumerated powers on the federal government for the very purpose of making space for freedom and self-government. The president’s job is to faithfully discharge his constitutional duties, first and foremost. If he lacks power to take a certain action — no matter how seemingly urgent — it is his duty not to act, generally in deference to the states to whom the Constitution reserves the power to regulate for the health, safety, and welfare of their citizens.

Some may perceive the concepts of limited government and federalism as quaint, or even dangerous, in the face of a global pandemic. That’s wrong. It’s during times of crisis when those bedrock principles must be most forcefully asserted. And it’s when illegitimate government action comes clothed in the name of public health and safety that those principles must be vigorously defended.

Our government has not been immune to abusing its power in times of danger: The Alien and Sedition Act and President Harry S. Truman’s seizure of steel mills during the Korean War come to mind, to name just a few examples. And now, the federal government seeks to follow suit in the face of COVID-19.

And that is why Alliance Defending Freedom is representing The Daily Wire in its lawsuit against the Biden administration to stop its new mandate. The federal government cannot force Americans to choose between vaccination, constant health testing, or unemployment, and it cannot coerce American employers to enforce any such dictate with the threat of heavy penalties.

This fight is not about whether the COVID-19 vaccine is safe, effective, or ethically produced. Many people of good faith have chosen to be vaccinated — including many at The Daily Wire and ADF

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