Attorney General Cameron Challenges Biden Administration’s Head Start Vaccine Mandate

Second Lawsuit Filed by Atty General Cameron

Attorney General Daniel Cameron today filed a multi-state lawsuit challenging the Biden Administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for thousands of staff and volunteers in federal Head Start programs. The lawsuit, filed with 23 other states, argues that the mandate is unlawful and unconstitutional.

“I’ve heard from Kentuckians who are concerned about the negative effect that this mandate will have on Head Start programs in their local communities,” said Attorney General Cameron.  “Kentucky’s head start programs serve over 17,000 Kentucky children, and we cannot afford to lose these essential services. We’ve challenged the Biden Administration’s mandates for federal contractors, private businesses, and healthcare workers in court, and we believe that the Head Start mandate suffers from the same legal flaws as those mandates.”

The federal Head Start program promotes school-readiness for preschool-age children in underserved communities across the country.  In the Commonwealth, 15,167 children are served by the Head Start program and over 2,402 children are enrolled in early Head Start programs.  According to a survey of Kentucky’s 28 Head Start grantees, responding grantees anticipate having to fire approximately 17 percent of their staff for not complying with the Biden Administration’s mandate requirements.

The attorneys general argue that if the mandate is allowed to stand, thousands of Head Start staff nationwide risk losing their jobs and volunteers will be prevented from giving their time to the program. As well, contractors and other services provides who do not comply with the mandate will be prevented from serving Head Start programs.

The attorneys general note that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) enacted the Head Start mandate 82 days after indicating an intent to do so, but made the mandate effective immediately.  In undertaking this process, HHS bypassed federal notice-and-comment requirements.  This action prevented Head Start grantees and other stakeholders from providing comment on how the mandate will affect programs across the country. The states also allege that the Head Start mandate violates 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.

The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, and Attorney General Cameron and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry filed the lawsuit alongside Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Wyoming, and West Virginia.

View the filings here and here.