'Unconstitutional': Colorado Republican Party Chair Reacts To Presidential COVID Vaccine, Testing Mandate

DENVER (CBS4)- Threats of legal challenges are being made by the Republican National Committee and several GOP governors as people question President Joe Biden's right to issue his executive order. On Thursday, Biden outlined plans to mandate that employers with more than 100 workers require their employees to be vaccinated or test for COVID-19 weekly.

If you think Biden was the first to mandate vaccinations, you're not even close. Presidnt George Washington ordered his troops to get vaccinated against smallpox. That horrible disease was still around 100 years later when opposition to vaccinations was common in the U.S. and elsewhere.

But in 1905, the U.S. Supreme court found that mandatory vaccinations at the state level were legal, now legal analyst Raj Chohan says it will be challenged again.

"It's going to be constitutional because there are reasonable alternatives for people who don't want to participate."

Tests instead of vaccinations are options to Biden's mandate.

In the 1970s and 80s, all states required various vaccinations for students. And now here we are in 2021.

But Colorado Republican Party Chairwoman Kristi Burton Brown insists the presidential mandate is not legal.

"I mean it's absolutely unconstitutional. Joe Biden does not have the power to tell private business owners what to do with their employees," she said.

With the Delta variant spreading rapidly, the president sees vaccinations as necessary for the greater good. But Republicans are challenging it.

Brown noted, "I am pro vaccinations, if they want to get vaccine they should absolutely should, but I am against mandating what people do in their own personal life."