LITTLE ROCK – Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge released a statement following the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit’s decision to dissolve the Fifth Circuit’s stay of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) rule implementing President Biden’s vaccine mandate order. That rule requires private companies with 100 or more employees to mandate that employees be vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to masking and weekly testing at their own expense.

“The Sixth Circuit’s decision is extremely disappointing for Arkansans because it will force them to get the shot or lose their jobs,” said Attorney General Rutledge. “That’s why I am asking the United States Supreme Court to immediately block President Biden’s order.”

In November, following OSHA’s release of the final rule, a petition for review was immediately challenged by Rutledge and 10 fellow state attorneys generals in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. After other petitions were filed in every other regional circuit in the country, all the petitions were transferred to the Sixth Circuit.