The Supreme Court Seems Inclined To Block OSHA's Vaccine Mandate

[Kamaji]

The Supreme Court Seems Inclined To Block OSHA's Vaccine Mandate

Most of the justices appear to be skeptical of the argument that the agency has the power it is asserting.

By:  Jacob Sullum
1.7.2022

The Supreme Court today considered whether it should block enforcement of the Biden administration's COVID-19 vaccination rule for private employers until the many legal challenges to that policy are resolved. Most of the justices seemed inclined to think that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) had overstepped its statutory authority by demanding that companies with 100 or more employees require them to be vaccinated or wear face masks and submit to weekly virus testing.

Chief Justice John Roberts noted that the Biden administration has imposed a series of vaccine mandates, covering federal employees, federal contractors, and health care workers as well the companies subject to OSHA's rule. "It seems to me…that the government is trying to work across the waterfront," Roberts said. "It sounds like the sort of thing that states will be responding to, or should be, or that Congress should be."

Justice Neil Gorsuch agreed that the administration seems to be using various legal pretexts to create what amounts to a general vaccine mandate that Congress so far has declined to impose or authorize. "Congress has had a year to act on the question of vaccine mandates," Gorsuch said. "It appears that the federal government is going agency by agency as a workaround." He noted that OSHA's rule relies on a statute that is "50 years old" and "doesn't address this question." He added that "traditionally, states have had the responsibility for overseeing vaccination mandates."

*  *  *

Source:  https://reason.com/2022/01/07/the-supreme-court-seems-inclined-to-block-oshas-vaccine-mandate/

[Hoodat]

Supreme Court Just Heard Oral Arguments in Vaccine Mandate Cases. Here Are the Takeaways.

Sarah Parshall Perry & Paul J. Larkin Jr.  |  Jan 10th, 2022

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Friday in two cases on an emergency basis. Both cases involve lawsuits stemming from the Biden administration’s attempt to expand vaccination of Americans in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19’s seemingly limitless variants.

The first case, NFIB v. OSHA, arose from challenges filed by employers (including The Heritage Foundation) and states against the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s vaccine-or-test mandate (known as an emergency temporary standard, an emergency rule applying to employers with 100 employees or more).

In that case, the plaintiffs argued that the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 did not clearly authorize OSHA to commandeer businesses into implementing a vaccine-or-testing mandate covering perhaps 84-plus million Americans.

The plaintiffs also argued that OSHA was required to use regular notice-and-comment procedures required by the Administrative Procedure Act (a way to ensure thoughtful and public rule-making by executive agencies), instead of issuing an emergency rule.

The second case, Biden v. Missouri, involved state-filed lawsuits that sought to block a vaccine mandate issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under the Medicare and Medicaid laws for workers at health care facilities.  .  .

https://www.heritage.org/courts/commentary/supreme-court-just-heard-oral-arguments-vaccine-mandate-cases-here-are-the


Looking like a 6-3 decision to me.