Ashley Moody urges quick hearing in case challenging vaccine mandates for federal contractors
It's Ashley Moody versus evil phone robots.

FL_IN_FOCUS_ASHLEY_MOODY_3
The AG is confident in the venue, judge, and argument.

Attorney General Ashley Moody said Friday she wanted a quick hearing in the federal lawsuit filed this week challenging vaccine mandates for federal contractors.

“We’re going to be pushing very hard for a quick hearing. We know that many folks have been watching this concerned,” Moody said on the Fox News Channel’s America Reports.

Moody filed the lawsuit in the federal Middle District of Florida in Tampa against NASA, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and President Joe Biden, among a host of other parties. The AG expressed confidence she would have a “fair judge” and a “hearing quickly to make sure our arguments would be heard.”

Judge Steven Merryday is presiding over the case. And he has been sympathetic to Florida’s arguments in the past. This summer, he sided with Florida regarding the matter of vaccine passports to board cruise ships, contending that was an example of federal overreach.

Moody offered confident statements, alternating with condemnations of the Biden administration.

“We look forward to vindicating Florida workers and making sure they don’t have to choose between a job and medical autonomy,” Moody said, expressing confidence the state will prevail even as she again condemned the Biden administration’s expansive approach to federal prerogative.

“The gymnastics that this administration had to do to get this done is reprehensible,” Moody said. “I can not believe this obliteration of the separation of powers that this President has been amenable to since taking office.”

The complaint alleges harm to universities, Space Florida, and the state’s Department of Education, decrying “arbitary and capricious” mandates.

The stentorian rhetoric from the state’s chief legal officer was in keeping with the tough talk presented in a press conference with Gov. Ron DeSantis this week, where the suit was rolled out as a defense of contractors in aerospace and other fields, and Moody said Biden dared to “laugh about freedom” when talking up the mandates.

“President Biden or his handlers don’t have the ability to control everything in this country,” Moody said. “We the states have rights, and our citizens have rights and freedoms.”

DeSantis also weighed in.

“We’ve gone from 15 Days to Slow the Spread to three jabs to keep your job somehow. Are you kidding me?” DeSantis said.

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has written for FloridaPolitics.com since 2014. He is based in Northeast Florida. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski



#FlaPol

Florida Politics is a statewide, new media platform covering campaigns, elections, government, policy, and lobbying in Florida. This platform and all of its content are owned by Extensive Enterprises Media.

Publisher: Peter Schorsch @PeterSchorschFL

Contributors & reporters: Phil Ammann, Drew Dixon, Roseanne Dunkelberger, A.G. Gancarski, Anne Geggis, Ryan Nicol, Jacob Ogles, Cole Pepper, Gray Rohrer, Jesse Scheckner, Christine Sexton, Drew Wilson, and Mike Wright.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @PeterSchorschFL
Phone: (727) 642-3162
Address: 204 37th Avenue North #182
St. Petersburg, Florida 33704




Sign up for Sunburn


Categories