The Supreme Court ruled on two of the Biden administration's workplace Covid-19 vaccine mandates Thursday, blocking a requirement for large private employers while letting another for healthcare workers move forward.
President Joe Biden spoke about the government's response to COVID-19.
The Associated Press.
The private employer rule, which required more than 100 employees to have either vaccinations or Covid-19 tests, is temporarily blocked as litigation against it plays out in the lower courts.
The federal government hadn't yet started enforcing the testing requirement for unvaccinated employees before the Supreme Court ruled, but the policy had previously gone into effect on January 4.
All healthcare workers will need to get a first vaccine dose by January 27 and a second vaccine by February 28.
A district court judge ruled against the vaccine mandate for federal contractors in December, but litigation is still playing out in appeals court and hasn't made it to the Supreme Court yet.
The vaccine requirement for federal employees is in effect, and as of December the White House reported that almost all of them are in compliance.
84 million. If the private employer mandate had not been blocked, approximately one-fifth of the U.S. workforce would have been covered, according to the Department of Labor.
What to watch for.
The federal government no longer requires private companies to have a vaccine policy in place. Starbucks implemented their policies before the rule started being enforced, which is unusual for large companies. Boeing and General Electric dropped their mandates after the policy was blocked in court, and other private employers could now follow suit.
We don't know what we don't know.
Whether the Biden administration will try to create a vaccine rule for private employers that is more narrowly tailored to stand up in court. The policy was enacted as an emergency rule, which isn't subject to the normal rule-making process, and it could be tried to be a regular rule. It is not clear how the healthcare worker policy will play out in states with vaccine mandate bans, such as Florida, that conflict with the federal policy.
The key background.
The Biden administration implemented its vaccine policies as a way to combat vaccine hesitancy and boost vaccination rates, but the rules have proved controversial and have been met with a lot of litigation and state policies aimed at counteracting them. The private employer mandate was blocked by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals before being restored by the 6th Circuit. The policy was too broad and went beyond just being a workplace issue, and the Supreme Court suggested that the mandate should have been left to Congress. The more narrow healthcare worker mandate was ruled in favor of by the court, but it believed the federal government had the authority to impose it. The vaccine rule was notarbitrary and capricious because it was common among healthcare workers and many were in favor of it.
The Supreme Court Blocks Biden's Private Employer Vaccine Mandate.
The New York Times reported that companies get vaccine mandates.
The judge temporarily blocks the vaccine mandate for federal contractors.
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