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Many times, we only learn about corruption and fraud because a whistleblower was brave enough to come forward. Whistleblowers often put their careers and reputation at risk because they believe in standing up for what’s right. There are federal, state, and local laws that encourage people to speak out and provide certain protections. One such...

On December 15, 2021, US District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas ordered that CMS was prohibited from enforcing its vaccine mandate "within the State of Texas." Also on December 15, 2021, the Fifth Circuit ruled that the CMS mandate injunction would only continue in the 14 states directly involved in...

Executive Order 14043 (September 9, 2021) Requiring Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccination for Federal Employees State of Oklahoma and Air National Guard Members v. Biden. On December 2, Oklahoma filed suit in the Western District of Oklahoma to enjoin the mandate on federal employees (and military members). No federal court has enjoined this executive order as...

Following a scathing opinion by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit striking down the OSHA COVID-19 mandate nationwide in BST Holdings, LLC v. OSHA, all OSHA-related COVID-19 litigation was assigned to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit by the Judicial Conference of the United States. Going forward, all cases challenging the OSHA COVID-19...

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen is accusing her former company of "tearing our societies apart" in an interview with CBS' 60 Minutes. "The version of Facebook that exists today is tearing our societies apart and causing ethnic violence around the world," Haugen told 60 Minutes. She accused the social media giant of placing profit above the...

If your company intends to institute a mandatory vaccination policy for its employees – or already has, you are almost certain to receive exemptions requests. Such requests can be based on medical grounds or based on the employee having recovered from a prior COVID-19 infection. Employees can also claim exemption based on religion. It is...

Timing of a Claim of Religious Exemption Wait until the mandate is announced before claiming an exemption. A premature claim could put a target on your back unnecessarily. Also, if you wait until the policy is announced, you will have additional information about what the standard will be to approve REs. Look to see if there is...

Tarrant County’s John Peter Smith Hospital (JPS) agreed to pay more than $3.3 million to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by upcoding certain claims submitted to federal healthcare programs, Acting U.S. Attorney Prerak Shah announced last month. The settlement resolves a whistleblower suit filed in 2018 by JPS’s former Director of...

On August 24, 2021, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III issued a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all members of the Armed Forces under DoD authority on active duty or in the Ready Reserve, including the National Guard. As stated in the Secretary of Defense's memorandum, the DoD vaccine mandate "will only use COVID-19 vaccines...

In light of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine's recent approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), vaccination mandates are ramping up across the country. Employers and universities are requiring that people get the vaccine as a condition of continued employment or enrollment. For some, these mandates conflict with a sincerely held religious objection to the...