The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the vaccine mandate for large employers was unconstitutional. It will allow the administration's less sweeping vaccine requirements for health care workers at federally funded facilities to move forward.
The federal suits seeking to block the mandates reflected widespread hostility towards covid vaccines on the hard political right, which has increasingly struck an alliance of convenience with the anti-vaxx movement and rallied around the theme of "vaccine choice." The suits were mostly filed by officials from GOP-controlled state governments. Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Samuel Alito, Amy ConeyBarrett, Neil Gorsuch, and Clarence Thomas all sided with the large employer mandate. The dissent was made up of their liberal colleagues. The second decision upheld health worker vaccination requirements.
The Biden administration rules would have required employers with more than 100 employees to have their employees wear masks and take weekly coronaviruses tests. Some classes of workers, such as those with legitimate medical or religious objections, fully remote workers, and those who work entirely outside, were exempt.
CNN reported that the temporary rule wouldn't require employers to purchase the tests for employees or pay for time off to take them, although the decision to charge unvaccinated workers for the tests would ultimately be decided on a state-by-state basis. The rule would have applied to 84 million private-sector employees if it had been in effect.
Throwing the large employer mandate out is a disaster for the federal government. An appellate court agreed that OSHA had the authority to impose such emergency requirements. It is hard to not see the ruling as another partisan flex by a court that is now firmly under the control of Republican appointees. The court's conservative majority argued that the coronaviruses can spread anywhere, so it's not a workplace hazard.
OSHA is limited to regulating work-related dangers, according to the Solicitor General. There is a response brief for OSHA. TheOSHA response was 45. The risk of contracting COVID–19 qualifies as such a danger. We can't agree. COVID–19 is a risk that occurs in many places, but it is not an occupational hazard. In schools, at home, and everywhere else that people gather, carbon dioxide can and does spread. All of us face dangers on a day-to-day basis from crime, air pollution, or any number of communicable diseases.
One could argue about fire. Or, for that matter, being killed in a car wreck, being killed in a plane crash, or falling down a flight stairs.
Congress gave OSHA the power to regulate occupational dangers, but it did not give the agency the power to regulate public health. The requirement that 84 million Americans bevaccinated simply because they work for employers with more than 100 employees falls in the latter category.
The liberal justices wrote that SCOTUS lacks knowledge of how to safeguard workplace and is not responsible for damage it causes.
The mandate upheld by SCOTUS applies to a much smaller number of health care workers. It was created by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and affects hospitals, other health care and medical facilities, and health systems that receive funding from Medicaid or Medicare. The agency said it has the authority to impose conditions of participation or coverage on those who receive its funds but have exemptions on medical and religious grounds.
The rulings are not surprising. According to the New York Times, conservative justices on the court were skeptical of the large employer mandate. Roberts referred to it as something that the federal government had never done before, while Barrett focused on whether the mandate was too broad because it did not distinguish between certain types of employers. The statute allowing for OSHA to issue temporary rules during emergencies was not clearly defined enough to justify such broad action.
The mandate was necessary, according to the Times. It is the greatest public health danger that this country has faced. It was unbelievable that it could be in the public interest to stop these vaccinations.
State mandates for health care workers were previously ruled in favor of the SCOTUS. According to the Times, the case was unusual because the people who are regulated are not complaining about the regulation, but overwhelmingly appear to support it. People are not showing up to hospitals because they are afraid of getting Covid from staff. You can't kill your patients.
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