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U.S. Supreme Court Blocks Biden’s Federal Vaccine Mandate
January 13, 2022
The U.S. Supreme Court has issued a stay on the Biden Administration’s order to businesses with 100 or more employees to require workers to get vaccinated for coronavirus or submit to weekly testing.
The mandate, issued last year by executive order from President Joe Biden to the federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration, exceeded the federal agency’s authority under federal statutes approved by Congress, the high court ruled by a 6-3 vote.
“Applicants are likely to succeed on the merits of their claim that the Secretary lacked authority to impose the mandate,” the court said, adding that instead of an ordinary use of federal power the vaccine mandate “is instead a significant encroachment into the lives – and health – of a vast number of employees.”
The federal agency widely known as OSHA is empowered “to set workplace safety standards,” the court said, “not broad public health measures.”
“Although COVID–19 is a risk that occurs in many workplaces, it is not an occupational hazard in most. COVID–19 can and does spread at home, in schools, during sporting events, and everywhere else that people gather. That kind of universal risk is no different from the day-to-day dangers that all face from crime, air pollution, or any number of communicable diseases. Permitting OSHA to regulate the hazards of daily life — simply because most Americans have jobs and face those same risks while on the clock — would significantly expand OSHA’s regulatory authority without clear congressional authorization,” the court said.
Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, and Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the majority.
In dissent were the court’s three liberals: Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan.
“When we are wise, we know enough to defer on matters like this one. When we are wise, we know not to displace the judgments of experts, acting within the sphere Congress marked out and under Presidential control, to deal with emergency conditions. Today, we are not wise,” the dissenters stated. “In the face of a still-raging pandemic, this Court tells the agency charged with protecting worker safety that it may not do so in all the workplaces needed.”
The court’s decision blocks Biden’s federal vaccine mandate for the foreseeable future.
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