Supreme Court Overturns Vaccine Mandate for Large Employers

The U.S. Supreme Court has stopped a vaccine mandate that would have required large employers to enforce COVID-19 vaccinations or weekly testing for their workers, the Associated Press reports.

The court heard arguments against the mandate, which was issued by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), on Friday, January 7. On Thursday, January 13, the court’s majority concluded the Biden administration overstepped its authority by seeking to impose the emergency temporary standard (ETS) on U.S. businesses with at least 100 employees. More than 80 million people would have been affected.

 “OSHA has never before imposed such a mandate. Nor has Congress. Indeed, although Congress has enacted significant legislation addressing the COVID–19 pandemic, it has declined to enact any measure similar to what OSHA has promulgated here,” six Supreme Court justices wrote in an unsigned opinion.

In dissent, three justices argued that it was the court that was overreaching by substituting its judgment for that of health experts. “Acting outside of its competence and without legal basis, the Court displaces the judgments of the Government officials given the responsibility to respond to workplace health emergencies,” Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a joint dissent.

At the same time, the court decided 5-4 to allow the administration to proceed with a vaccine mandate for most U.S. health workers. The mandate covers virtually all health care workers in the country as it applies to providers that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid funding. It potentially affects 76,000 health care facilities as well as home health care providers. The rule has medical and religious exemptions.

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