Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor Joins 24-State Lawsuit to Block President Biden’s Head Start Mandates

OKLAHOMA CITY – AG Press Release

Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor has joined a multi-state lawsuit against Joe Biden’s overreaching COVID mandates. The suit, led by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, takes aim at the President’s unlawful requirements of masks on toddlers and COVID-19 shots for staff and volunteers in Head Start Programs.

“This unconstitutional mandate for pre-school students, staff, and volunteers will cause mayhem for educators and low-income families in Oklahoma. My office will continue to fight for the rights of Oklahomans and defend the rule of law against the Biden Administration’s burdensome overreach,” said Attorney General John O’Connor.

Head Start provides much needed resources to underserved children and their families. The program provides early childhood education and resources, including diapers, to families. Forcing teachers, contractors, and volunteers in Head Start Programs to be “vaccinated” by January 31, will cost jobs and programing.

“Like all of his other unlawful attempts to impose medical decisions on Americans, Biden’s overreaching orders to mask two-year-olds and force vaccinate teachers in our underserved communities will cost jobs and impede child development,” added Attorney General Landry. “If enacted, Biden’s authoritarianism will cut funding, programs, and childcare that working families, single mothers, and elderly raising grandchildren rely on desperately.”

The states allege that the Head Start Mandate is not only beyond the Executive Branch’s authority, contrary to law, and arbitrary and capricious, but it also violates the APA’s Notice-and-Comment Requirement, 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.

Joining Attorneys General O’Connor and Landry in [Louisiana, et al. vs. Becerra, et al.] are the Attorneys General from Louisiana, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Wyoming, and West Virginia.