Supreme Court Strikes Down Vaccine-Or-Test Mandate For Private Employees

AP: Supreme Court Halts COVID-19 Vaccine Rule For US Businesses
The Supreme Court has stopped a major push by the Biden administration to boost the nation’s COVID-19 vaccination rate, a requirement that employees at large businesses get a vaccine or test regularly and wear a mask on the job. At the same time, the court is allowing the administration to proceed with a vaccine mandate for most health care workers in the U.S. The court’s orders Thursday came during a spike in coronavirus cases caused by the omicron variant. (Sherman and Gresko, 1/13)

NPR: Supreme Court Blocks Biden's Vaccine-Or-Test Mandate For Large Private Companies
The vote to invalidate the vaccine-or-test regulation was 6 to 3, along ideological lines. "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," the majority said in an unsigned opinion. "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 regulation struck down by the court would have applied to more than 80 million private sector employees and would have required all businesses with 100 or more workers to either be vaccinated, with the federal government footing the bill, or be tested weekly. (Totenberg, 1/13)

The Washington Post: Supreme Court Blocks Biden's Covid Vaccine Rules For Businesses, Allows Mandate For Health-Care Workers Proceed
The court’s orders, issued after an emergency hearing Friday, might seem like a split decision. But the OSHA vaccine-or-test requirement would have applied to 84 million people. The requirement for health-care workers covers about 10 million. Approximately 63 percent of the country is fully vaccinated, according to estimates. The Biden administration had hoped the OSHA requirements would compel upward of an additional 20 million to get the shots and estimated there were more than 2 million holdouts among the health-care workers, distributed unevenly across the country. (Barnes, 1/13)

NBC News: Supreme Court Blocks Biden Admin's Covid Requirements For Workplaces, Allows Vaccine Mandate For Health Care Workers
In their dissent, the three liberal justices on the court said OSHA was well within its authority and expertise to impose the mandates, unlikes the court, which they said was "lacking any knowledge of how to safeguard workplaces, and insulated from responsibility for any damage it causes." "In the face of a still-raging pandemic, this court tells the agency charged with protecting worker safety that it may not do so in all the workplaces needed," the justices wrote. "As disease and death continue to mount, this court tells the agency that it cannot respond in the most effective way possible. Without legal basis, the court usurps a decision that rightfully belongs to others. It undercuts the capacity of the responsible federal officials, acting well within the scope of their authority, to protect American workers from grave danger." (Williams, 1/13)

Bloomberg: Biden's OSHA Vaccine Mandate Blocked By Supreme Court
The OSHA ruling limits Biden’s options for increasing the country’s vaccination rate as the omicron variant propels a spike in cases. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says only 63% of the country is fully vaccinated and of that group just 37% have received a booster shot. More than 800,000 people in the U.S. have died from the virus. ... The decision is a victory for 26 business groups and 27 Republican-led states that sued to challenge the OSHA policy, saying it exceeded the workplace-safety agency’s authority. (Stohr, 1/13)