The Supreme Court temporarily suspended the Biden administration’s vaccine-or-test mandate for large employers on Thursday, but allowed the administration’s vaccine mandate for health-care workers at facilities that receive federal funding to go into effect.
In the first case, the conservative majority on the bench ruled to block President Biden’s vaccine requirement for private businesses pending further review by the court. Biden had argued that the order derived authority from the 1971 Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), which empowered the federal government to regulate workplace health and safety standards.
However, the majority opinion, issued without an author, argued that the mandate exceeded its statutory authority and raised separation of powers concerns “in the absence of clear delegation from Congress.” It was inappropriate for the Biden administration to invoke the Emergency Temporary Standard provision of the law since it applies to very “narrow circumstances,” the Court said.
“Applicants are likely to succeed on the merits of their claim that the Secretary lacked authority to impose the mandate. Administrative agencies are creatures of statute. They accordingly possess only the authority that Congress has provided,” the Court’s unsigned decision read.
Specifically, the Labor Secretary must demonstrate that “employees are exposed to grave danger from exposure to substances or agents determined to be toxic or physically harmful or from new hazards” and that the “emergency standard is necessary to protect employees from such danger.” The Court said the risk posed by Covid in the workplace failed to meet these prongs.
“Congress has nowhere clearly assigned so much power to OSHA,” Justice Gorsuch wrote in a concurring opinion joined by Justice Thomas and Justice Alito.
Moreover, the Court declared that the OSHA mandate was far too broad in treating all commercial sectors the same. While the order includes narrow exceptions for remote workers or those who work exclusively outdoors, “the regulation otherwise operates as a blunt instrument,” the court said. “It draws no distinctions based on industry or risk of exposure to COVID–19.”
While the court acknowledged the testing exemption for employees who choose not to get vaccinated, it noted that employers are not required to offer this option, leaving some employees in the vulnerable position of getting fired with no recourse.
The Court touched on the medical liberty question, calling the mandate an “encroachment into the lives and health of employees” and noting that, unlike rules for workplace dangers on the job, vaccination is irreversible.
OSHA, the Court said, was charged with regulating “occupational” hazards, exclusive to the workplace, for the safety and health of employees rather than public health generally, “which falls out of OSHA’s sphere of expertise.”
In order for the mandate to be permissible, given that Covid presents universal risk regardless of the setting, the Court said it would need to target occupation-specific risks related to the virus in certain industries, such as research laboratories.
The plaintiffs appealed to the Supreme Court to review the case after the Sixth Circuit court vacated the stay of the Fifth Circuit, allowing the mandate to go back into effect. The high court then admitted the case into its emergency docket and heard arguments on Friday, subsequently delivering its own stay Thursday.
In the second case dealing with the vaccine requirement for healthcare workers at facilities that receive federal funding, since those institutions fall within the government’s regulatory domain. “We agree with the Government that the Secretary’s rule falls within the authorities that Congress has conferred upon him,” the Court opinion read.
Reprinted with Permission from - National Review by - Caroline Downey
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Kinda shows ya’ that SCOTUS is in “their” back pocket also. Scary. So, the health care system was facing a shortage of workers before this and now…….we might want to find a hospital in Mexico for plan B.
They need to just get rid of ALL the stupid vaccine mandates. They do no good plus have caused more deaths and adverse reactions than covid has. It’s just all a CONTROL thing….as that is what the demonrats like to do…Control. Like CA Nazi control freak of a governor.
True, for Covid especially since the current Omicron variant seems less dangerous than previous variants but I would not be in favor of getting rid of vaccine mandates for measles, chickenpox, or mumps.
totally agree. throwing us out of jobs even though we have natural immunity along with other perma health problems from having had covid they’re such freakin idiots on the take from big pharma
As a retired RN, I find the refusal to protect healthcare workers from illegal mandates abhorrent. Don’t be surprised, as time goes on, that hospitals will be shutting down as the lack of healthcare workers makes providing even ‘adequate’ care impossible!
I heard someone say that this ruling for health care workers should make everyone re-think the idea of universal health care or what Democrats call Medicare for all! When ever the government gets a hold of a part of society and starts funding it with tax payer money, all in that program become beholden to the federal government! If we all end up with universal health care, these kinds of mandates become permanent for EVERYONE!!! So educate your friends and family on this decision cuz it’s ramifications are going to extend to ALL government funded entities as the Blob continues to grow!
So now medical professionals and care providers are second-class citizens that have rights equal to that of a lab rat. God bless our medical care providers!
What’s left of them
The People of NYC gave the Left that ban on anything larger than a 12 ounce cup of soda.
You cannot give them anything because they are never going to be satisfied.
Federal mandating of vaccine shots is a violation of individual rights. Touchy, yes. But it leaves the government in an easier position to mandate all kinds of actions ‘for the health and safety” of the people. If masks are as effective as has been claimed, a person should make their own decision as to whether they are required to “mask up.” If a person has been diagnosed with CV, then I can understand mask and other restrictions on their conduct and behavior. I just think that government is hoping that as the threat of having CV declines, it will get credit for its role … thus making it easier to justify future rights restrictions on the population which will give it some however slight advantage in the political arena. That particularly fits the strategy of the Democrat Party of … RULING not just governing.
Hmmm. Unconstitutional for non-health care businesses. But A-OK for health care related businesses. There seems to be no consistency in the logic.
In the general business opinion, it was roughly stated that OSHA can’t mandate rules applying to normal day to day risks, meaning they’re not job specific risks. But then SCOTUS does a 180 for health care workers and states that mandating such rules is fine simply because they receive federal funding.
So I guess the underlying statement is don’t take government funds because once you do, they own your #ss.
Your closing sentence is one of the Democrat Party’s “ten commandments” of politics and governance. It is also one of the tenets of Communism.
You have to remember that these health care facilities receive monies from feds for every positive Covid test, every person placed on a ventilator and every death chalked up to Covid
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Is this the “squad” alerting us to more stimulus money?
So, that still leaves people like my son-in-law, who not only works REMOTELY for an insurance company in Tennessee, AND has now had COVID TWICE in the last six months and RECOVERED both times, AND has filed a religious exemption with his employer, at risk of losing his job, which supports his wife and four children, ages 12 and under.
Thanks, for nothing, John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh! You are a disgrace to the Court, the Constitution which you are sworn to uphold, and to the rule of law. (Roberts has also whined about his concerns of “overriding the legal precedent of overcoming Roe v. Wade”, which signals his willingness to uphold that horrible law just because of the Court’s vile invention of a freedom that’s non-existent. Makes me wonder whether he would have upheld equally vile Court rulings that were, eventually, changed.) The Dems must have something horrific to hold over this Justice.
Roberts has a voting history that seems to put him in a traitorous role to the political and governance values that were the basis of his SCOTUS nomination.
The Supreme Court dropped the ball on medical tyranny. What right does a medical facility have to threaten their employees to take an experimental shot or loose their job? Isn’t this a Nuremberg violation?
Any employer can require their employees to be vaccinated. Any vaccine requirement is generally an employer’s choice.
The Court upheld this employer’s choice in Biden vs. Missouri for most large employers but the Court also ruled in Becerra vs. Louisiana that healthcare employers who receive federal reimbursements from Medicare, Medicaid and other federal sources are subject to federal vaccine requirements.
I listened to 90 minutes of that Supreme Court circus and not one person mentioned the fact that this jab that they are pushing is not even a vaccine. Vaccines keep you from contracting a disease, not giving it to you without symptoms to pass on to everyone that you come into contact with
The U.S. Covid vaccines were not created using a live virus so they can’t give you the disease to pass along to someone else.
However, you could have side effects from the jab.
But just being ‘vaccinated’ you can still get the virus and pass it on to others.
Correct. Once fully vaccinated, you can still get the Covid virus and pass it on to others but in most cases, your Covid symptoms will be milder and your chances of passing it along to others or dying from Covid are greatly reduced.
Also, true that once you get Covid, you can still get Covid again and pass it on to others again although your Covid symptoms may be milder the second time around.
We still don’t know how long a person’s immunity will last either after they are fully vaccinated or after after they have had Covid. It’s still a crap shoot.
Your chances of “passing it along to others or dying” are “greatly reduced” or having milder Covid symptoms? You sure about that? True, it might not be directly related to Covid, but how about the folks that took the jab and suffered heart attacks and other debilitating injuries? Will we see more cancer from these experimental inoculations? These shots do NOT improve your immune system. We also see many double jabbed individuals with boosters in other countries, especially Israel, that have been admitted to the hospital with severe symptoms. You might want to do some more research before you pass along so much “expert” information. The facts are, we just don’t know all the facts.
Given that heart disease and cancer have been the leading causes of death in the U.S. for years, it should not be surprising that just as many people keep dying from heart disease and cancer regardless of their vaccination status.
As for your claim that “these shots do NOT improve your immune system”, if you don’t believe that these shots create antibodies that fight the corona virus, don’t get the shots.
Question for you: Did you get any of the jabs yourself ?
Have you also noticed anyone in the hospital as a result of the so called ‘vaccine’ is now in there for ‘complications from covid’ when actually it is a result of the phony vaccine. I would rather die from covid than their damn vaccine.
Well, that’s the choice isn’t it.
If you believe that the potential side effects from a vaccine are worse than the potential symptoms of the disease, you don’t get the vaccine.
That was true for smallpox and polio when we were kids; for measles, mumps and chickenpox for the next generation; and for pneumonia, shingles, and Covid now.
I wouldn’t go to a hospital unless I were dying, because chances of getting correct medical care while there is frightening
Hooray for business alone awesome
Which one of the justices voted against allowing health care professionals(all hospital personnel) EMT’s ect..? Which one crossed over from the six that voted for the Constitution? I pray that state leaders will do away with these mandates so that these dedicated and highly trained professionals can save lives! This administration wants people to not be allowed the medical care they need so that they can control medical services. Vaccines are a failure but they still want to force them down the throats of all.
To answer your question, the five justices who voted for the vaccine mandate for healthcare workers in Becerra vs. Louisiana are Stephen Breyer, Bret Kavanaugh, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and John Roberts.
(The two crossover voters, Roberts and Kavanaugh, voted to suspend the vaccine mandate for large employers in Biden vs. Missouri.)
And no, the states cannot step in to override the Court’s opinion in Becerra vs. Louisiana. That would take an act of Congress.
Hahaha, that’s gonna happen isn’t it
Not with the current Congress but a year from now with a Republican Congress, there might be enough votes to override a Biden veto.
No one should ever be forced into taking any vaccine…..especially one that has proven it doesn’t work at all….and has caused lots of deaths and many permanent adverse side affects.
Agreed. Your body, your choice.