Fate of Federal Vaccine Mandate Resting on Supreme Court Decision

The U.S. Supreme Court is determining the fate of an emergency temporary standard (ETS) that requires all U.S. employers with 100 or more workers to mandate COVID-19 vaccines or weekly COVID-19 testing for their employees, CNN reports.

The court heard in-person arguments against the ETS, set by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), on Friday due to emergency requests from challengers of the mandate. The challengers maintain that U.S. President Joe Biden and his administration have overstepped their authority in setting the ETS.

The mandate is part of Biden’s drive to increase the U.S. vaccination rate and affects about 80 million workers nationwide. It came before the Supreme Court following a December 17 ruling by the 6^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that lifted an injunction issued by a lower court blocking the ETS.

The U.S. Supreme Court justices also heard arguments on a mandate requiring health care workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The mandate applies to a majority of the estimated 10.3 million Americans who work in health care facilities that receive money under the Medicaid and Medicare government programs. Biden’s administration is asking the Supreme Court to lift orders by federal judges in Missouri and Louisiana blocking the policy in half of U.S. states while litigation on the legal merits of the mandate continues.

The justices are under pressure to make a decision quickly. Biden’s administration has said it will start requiring compliance with the health care worker policy today, although companies would have until February 9 to set up testing programs. In the states where this regulation has not been blocked, workers are required to be fully vaccinated by February 28.

The justices have already rejected several religious-based challenges to state vaccine requirements. Friday’s hearing was the first test of the federal government’s authority to issue its own vaccine mandates.

In the meantime, employers are unsure how to proceed, with some concerned about losing staff in a tight labor market if they impose vaccine or testing requirements.