BY CHRIS QUEEN | P J Media
Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool
On Thursday afternoon, the Supreme Court weighed in on
Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for companies with more than 100 employees. The
Court ruled by a 6-3 margin, with Justices Breyer,
Sotomayor, and Kagan dissenting, to grant the applications for a stay of the
private OSHA mandate for businesses with more than 100 employees. In a separate 5-4 decision, the Court allowed the mandate
for federally funded healthcare agencies to go forward, with Justices Gorsuch,
Thomas, Barrett, and Alito dissenting. Chief Justice John Roberts sided with
the liberals on the court, voting to allow the mandate for health care workers
to continue.
On the OSHA mandate for private employers, the Court
ruled:
The
applications for stays presented to JUSTICE KAVANAUGH and by him referred to
the Court are granted. OSHA’s COVID–19 Vaccination and Testing; Emergency
Temporary Standard, 86 Fed. Reg. 61402, is stayed pending disposition of the
applicants’ petitions for review in the United States Court of Appeals for the
Sixth Circuit and disposition of the applicants’ petitions for writs of
certiorari, if such writs are timely sought. Should the petitions for writs of
certiorari be denied, this order shall terminate automatically. In the event
the petitions for writs of certiorari are granted, the order shall terminate
upon the sending down of the judgment of this Court.
The Court remanded the case back to the Sixth Circuit
Court of Appeals for further consideration. The Biden administration has not
yet announced whether it will continue to pursue the case, but that seems
unlikely now that the high court has essentially ruled that OSHA does not have
the authority to issue such an order:
Although
Congress has indisputably given OSHA the power to regulate occupational
dangers, it has not given that agency the power to regulate public health more
broadly. Requiring the vaccination of 84 million Americans, selected simply
because they work for employers with more than 100 employees, certainly falls
in the latter category.
The decision on the per curium brief in
favor of striking down the mandate for private employers concluded that OSHA’s
powers are limited to regulating the workplace, yet COVID-19 affects more than
just the workplace, which means that the pandemic falls outside of OSHA’s
purview.
On the vaccine mandate for health care workers, the Court
ruled:
The
District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri’s November 29, 2021, order
granting a preliminary injunction is stayed pending disposition of the
Government’s appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth
Circuit and the disposition of the Government’s petition for a writ of
certiorari, if such writ is timely sought. Should the petition for a writ of
certiorari be denied, this order shall terminate automatically. In the event
the petition for a writ of certiorari is granted, the order shall terminate
upon the sending down of the judgment of this Court. The District Court for the
Western District of Louisiana’s November 30, 2021, order granting a preliminary
injunction is stayed pending disposition of the Government’s appeal in the
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the disposition of the
Government’s petition for a writ of certiorari, if such writ is timely sought.
Should the petition for a writ of certiorari be denied, this order shall
terminate automatically. In the event the petition for a writ of certiorari is
granted, the order shall terminate upon the sending down of the judgment of this
Court.
The majority agreed with the Biden administration’s
argument that the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services has the right to
order health care facilities receiving federal Medicaid and Medicare dollars to
force vaccinations on its employees.
In November, Biden ordered federal contractors, employers
with 100 or more employees, and healthcare workers to force their employees to
either show proof of vaccination or be tested weekly and wear masks to work.
Since then, employers have been scrambling to figure out how to proceed as the
deadline loomed for compliance while the issue was tied up in the courts. On Monday,
the mandate officially went into effect, with no guidance from the Supreme Court on how they should
proceed. Many companies felt they had no choice but to begin enforcement of the
policy.
The Biden administration’s Emergency Temporary Standard
(ETS) cited a provision in OSHA regulations that it said gave broad authority
to the federal government to protect employees at private companies from
workplace hazards. Detractors said the language in the regulations was never
intended to be used to mandate widespread vaccinations.
States immediately began filing lawsuits claiming the
mandate was unconstitutional. A Louisiana federal court swiftly blocked the
mandate. But in December, a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the Fifth Circuit ruled that the lower court only had the authority to block
the mandate in the states that had filed suit. A federal court in Texas then
issued a preliminary injunction halting enforcement of the mandate for the states
that filed lawsuits.
A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the Sixth Circuit reinstated the vaccine mandate in mid-December, prompting a
flurry of petitions to the Supreme Court for relief. The Biden administration
petitioned the Supreme Court demanding a nationwide stay of the injunctions,
pending a full review by the lower courts. This past Friday, the Court held an
emergency hearing on the mandate for private employers as well as the one for
healthcare workers.
As more details and analysis come down the line, we’ll
share more with you. But in the meantime, breathe a sigh of relief that the
vaccine mandate for private companies is effectively dead.
