Iowa and 10 other states have filed a lawsuit challenging a vaccine mandate for employers issued by President Joe Biden's administration.
The suit filed in the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals contends that the authority to compel vaccinations rests with the states, not the federal government. The new mandate applies to private employers with at least 100 workers.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds noted through a news release today that the White House stated on July 23 that mandating vaccines is “not the role of the federal government.”
Gov. Reynolds has signed into law the state’s redistricting plan, finalizing the once-in-a-decade task complicated this year by late U.S. Census data that pushed the state past constitutional deadlines.
Reynolds announced last night she had signed legislation redrawing the legislative and congressional districts.
The Iowa Legislature on Oct. 28 passed a redistricting plan that was created by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency. It was the second set of maps after Iowa Senate Republicans rejected the first plan drawn by the LSA on Oct. 5. The new maps will be effective beginning with the 2022 elections.
In new maps push Democratic U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne and Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks into the same congressional district. Axne has not said whether she will seek re-election.
Twenty state senators and 38 House incumbents are paired in the same district and must decide whether to move, run against another incumbent or drop out.