Oklahoma Attorney General joins 24-state lawsuit to block President Biden’s Head Start face mask, COVID-19 vaccine mandate

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor joined a 24-state lawsuit written to block President Joe Biden’s mandate for COVID-19 precautions within Head Start programs.

The lawsuit is led by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry. It opposes Biden’s mandate that children within Head Start programs wear face masks and Head Start teachers and staff be vaccinated by Jan. 31, 2022. The mandate also requires Department of Defense teachers and youth program staff, as well as teachers and staff at schools operated by the Bureau of Indian Education, to be vaccinated.

“This unconstitutional mandate for pre-school students, staff, and volunteers will cause mayhem for educators and low-income families in Oklahoma. My office will continue to fight for the rights of Oklahomans and defend the rule of law against the Biden Administration’s burdensome overreach,” O’Connor said.

Head Start is a federal program that provides early childhood education and resources, including diapers, to low-income children and their families.

Landry said requiring Head Start teachers, contractors and volunteers to get vaccinated will impact jobs and programming.

“Like all of his other unlawful attempts to impose medical decisions on Americans, Biden’s overreaching orders to mask two-year-olds and force vaccinate teachers in our underserved communities will cost jobs and impede child development,” added Attorney General Landry. “If enacted, Biden’s authoritarianism will cut funding, programs, and childcare that working families, single mothers, and elderly raising grandchildren rely on desperately.”

The attorneys general who signed onto the lawsuit argue that the mandate exceeds presidential authority, contradicts the law and violates the APA’s Notice-and-Comment Requirement, the Congressional Review Act, the Nondelegation Doctrine, the Tenth Amendment, the Anti-Commandeering Doctrine, the Spending Clause, and the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act of 1999.

Attorneys general from the following states are participating in the lawsuit along with Landry and O’Connor: