Opinion ID: 6221662
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The two amendments

Text: A. Anti-commandeering doctrine The plaintiffs are seeking to add to their complaint that the vaccine mandate relevant here violates the anti-commandeering doctrine. That doctrine provides that the States cannot be commanded by the federal government to administer a federal regulatory program. Brackeen v. Haaland, 994 F.3d 249, 298–99 (5th Cir. 2021). Though this doctrine was not identified in the complaint as a basis for invalidating the mandate, the plaintiffs presented arguments about the doctrine in their motion for a preliminary injunction. The plaintiffs argued that the vaccine mandate violated the anti-commandeering doctrine because it directs state-run hospitals and state surveyors to enforce federal policy. The district court’s opinion on the preliminary injunction discusses this argument along with “other constitutional issues” in determining the likelihood of success by the plaintiffs on the merits. The district court found that there was no evidence as to which of the health care facilities subject to the mandate were private and which were operated by the States. Thus, the doctrine was considered but rejected as a basis to rule. The district court relied on other perceived constitutional defects and enjoined the mandate. Neither this court nor the 6 Case: 21-30734 Document: 00516201881 Page: 7 Date Filed: 02/14/2022 No. 21-30734 Supreme Court made any rulings about the anti-commandeering doctrine. We see no basis for adding this new constitutional theory to the case now. Nothing has changed in the authority being utilized by CMS for the mandate. True, there may be expansion of its reach by the new, January 25 guidance that the plaintiffs label the Surveyor Vaccine Mandate. Yet, if the anti-commandeering doctrine is implicated by the CMS mandate, that claim could have been brought at the very beginning of this case. Indeed, the district court considered the argument even without the complaint’s identifying the doctrine and rejected it as not having been proven. For us to send the case back so an effort could be made by the plaintiffs to plead and prove the doctrine more effectively than they did earlier is not a proper use of Appellate Rule 12.1. B. Surveyor Vaccine Mandate Plaintiffs also wish to add to their complaint a challenge to guidance issued by CMS in a January 25, 2022 publication entitled “Vaccination Expectations for Surveyors Performing Federal Oversight.” The district court summarized it as establishing “a new vaccine mandate on state employee surveyors who survey and report whether Medicare and Medicaid facilities are complying with applicable regulations, including the November 5, 2021 CMS Vaccine Mandate.” Among other objections, this decision to expand the coverage of the mandate was said to violate the Administrative Procedures Act. The defendants insist this is not a new mandate but simply guidance as to application of the November vaccine mandate to individuals who were not originally subject to it. The January 25 memorandum provides that these surveyors, if not vaccinated, are not to be part of any onsite evaluation of Medicare and Medicaid providers, but defendants say the guidance is given only as “expectations” without any authority retained by CMS or given to others to enforce it. 7 Case: 21-30734 Document: 00516201881 Page: 8 Date Filed: 02/14/2022 No. 21-30734 The guidance itself says this: “CMS is expanding on the exclusionary criteria for all surveyors . . . entering provider and supplier locations to include vaccination status.” By its own terms, then, the guidance adds surveyors to the group of unvaccinated individuals who are excluded from entering certain Medicare and Medicaid facilities. Consequently, we do not need to decide if there is some other method, besides an amendment here, for plaintiffs to challenge the later guidance. It is enough that we conclude that the January 25 guidance is an extension of the November Vaccine Mandate. Consequently, any invalidation of the November mandate will make this later guidance vestigial and potentially of little effect. The plaintiffs also argued in district court, and now to this court in the present motion, that the “rationale” for the November vaccine mandate has vanished. The argument is based on the facts that a milder strain of the COVID-19 virus now dominates as opposed to the one that reigned in November. Further, the plaintiffs argue that there has been widespread withdrawal of other federal, state and local mandates for vaccination, leaving the one for workers in medical facilities an arbitrary remnant. Even if those changes have occurred, a court may overturn an agency’s ruling “only if it is arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, not in accordance with law, or unsupported by substantial evidence on the [agency] record.” Buffalo Marine Servs. Inc. v. United States, 663 F.3d 750, 753 (5th Cir.2011) (emphasis added). Indeed, “[a]gency action is to be upheld, if at all, on the basis of the record before the agency at the time it made its decision.” Louisiana ex rel. Guste v. Verity, 853 F.2d 322, 327 n.8 (5th Cir. 1988). It could be the district court recognized those limitations, as the court did not accept the plaintiffs’ proposal to add to the complaint that the rationale for the mandate no longer exists. The district court’s indicative ruling summarized five new assertions in the amended complaint, then stated it would allow amendment only to add the anti-commandeering theory and a 8 Case: 21-30734 Document: 00516201881 Page: 9 Date Filed: 02/14/2022 No. 21-30734 challenge to the January 25 guidance. The court did not indicate acceptance of any amendment to include allegations about changed conditions having invalidated the original rationale. Thus, there is no basis under our Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 12.1 to remand to allow that allegation. Thus, we do not grant authority to add a claim about what appears to be a minor (in terms of the individuals affected) extension of the existing mandate. Moreover, we will not allow that extension, if that is what it is, to cause a reopening of the sufficiency of the factual basis for CMS’s earlier vaccine mandate. Finally, judicial review of agency action evaluates the facts revealed in the administrative record and the legal arguments relating to that record. Even if we have some authority to say an agency’s reasoning has timed out, neither this court nor the district court can be put in the position of re-analyzing this mandate with every new version of this virus. IT IS ORDERED that the plaintiff states’ opposed motion to remand the case to the United States District Court, Western District of Louisiana, Monroe, is DENIED. 9