Natural State News

When President Joe Biden issued a wave of new vaccine mandates last month, Arkansas officials took notice, with several prominent leaders saying mandates are not the way to loosen the pandemic’s grip on American life. 

Biden’s mandate requires organizations with more than 100 employees to either mandate vaccinations or require unvaccinated workers to test weekly, impacting some 80 million Americans, the Associated Press reported. 

Gov. Asa Hutchinson took to Twitter after the president issued the mandate, noting that while he supports efforts to increase vaccination rates nationwide, mandates aren’t the solution. 

“I have been consistent in the freedom of businesses to require their employees to be vaccinated, and I have opposed the government from saying businesses cannot exercise that freedom,” he wrote on Twitter Sept. 9. “The same principle should protect the private sector from government overreach that requires them to vaccinate all employees.”

Discover Arkansas reported that the state’s unemployment rate stood at 4.2% in August and continues to fall as state officials eschew continued federal unemployment aid and restore a work-search requirement for benefits. 

U.S. Rep. French Hill used to Twitter to express his opposition to the mandate, adding his concern about the potential economic impact.  

“Mandating vaccines on private businesses will further harm their ability to hire workers as they look to bring employees back to the workplace,” Hill tweeted Sept. 9. “Vaccines are a critical tool to defeating the virus & Americans should consult with their physicians & make their own informed decisions.”

Joining the Twitter chorus opposing the mandates, Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge lobbed a volley at the administration, hinting that Arkansas would follow other states in filing a lawsuit over the mandates.  

“President Biden needs to lawyer up because I will see him in court as I vigorously defend Arkansans from his vaccine mandate,” Rutledge tweeted Sept. 14.

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich was the first state attorney general to file a lawsuit targeting the Biden’s vaccine mandate, claiming the administration lacks the constitutional authority to support the mandate, according to the Associated Press.

In a blog post, Johnathan Turley, a professor at George Washington University Law School, expected the challenges to Biden’s mandate, and he claimed the president is displacing state law by federalizing large segments of government. 

Turley called the mandate the greatest drive toward federalism since the administration of John Adams, the nation’s second president.