Texas judge blocks Biden's federal worker vaccine mandate

Judge Jeffrey Brown of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, a Trump appointee, said that the president's order exceeded his authority and harmed the "liberty interests of employees."

"The court notes at the outset that this case is not about whether folks should get vaccinated against COVID-19 — the court believes they should. It is not even about the federal government's power, exercised properly, to mandate vaccination of its employees," Brown wrote in his opinion.

"It is instead about whether the President can, with the stroke of a pen and without the input of Congress, require millions of federal employees to undergo a medical procedure as a condition of their employment. That, under the current state of the law as just recently expressed by the Supreme Court, is a bridge too far," he said.