Federal judges appointed by former President Donald Trump have dealt a string of setbacks to the Biden administrations campaign to boost vaccination rates through new government rules.

This week two federal judges issued back-to-back injunctions temporarily blocking the White Houses new vaccine regulation issued through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The rule would require employees at facilities receiving Medicare and Medicaid funding to be vaccinated against COVID-19, covering an estimated 17 million workers at 76,000 sites.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp in St. Louis granted a preliminary injunction against the rule after GOP governors and attorneys general from 10 states sued to stop it from moving forward. Schelp wrote that the Biden administration stepped beyond its legal authority and imposed an unprecedented demand to federally dictate the private medical decisions of millions of Americans.

Then, on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty in Monroe, Louisiana, issued a separate injunction against the rule that would apply in the states not covered by Schelps order. Together the orders effectively block the Biden administration from enforcing the rule nationwide until the legal challenges are heard.

There is no question that mandating a vaccine to ... healthcare workers is something that should be done by Congress, not a government agency, Doughty wrote. It is not clear that even an Act of Congress mandating a vaccine would be constitutional.

Both Doughty and Schelp were nominated to the bench by Trump and confirmed by the then-GOP majority in the Senate, showing how the former presidents shaping of the judiciary affects Bidens vaccination plans. And they are not the only Trump judicial appointees to put hurdles up in front of the administration.

In early November, a panel of three judges issued a stay against Bidens new vaccine-or-test rule under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. That rule requires large employers to implement programs in which workers would show proof of vaccination or undergo weekly testing for COVID-19. It is the most expansive of the White Houses new vaccine rules, covering an estimated 84 million workers.