Rules On Vaccine: On January 13, 2022, the Supreme Court upheld the mandate for health workers while upholding the vaccination or testing mandate for large corporations
The Biden Administration’s requirement that large businesses force their employees to be vaccinated or tested for Covid 19 every week was overturned by a 6-3 vote on January 13, 2022.
The Justices said in their unsigned opinion that the OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) mandate was too broad and affected too many workers without making a distinction between the degree of risk associated with each job.
This opens the door to the possibility that the Court will uphold a mandate that is more restricted to particular kinds of work.
The Court’s refusal to support the “federal government’s ability to counter the unparalleled threat that Covid-19 poses to our nation’s workers” disappointed the three liberal justices.
The dissidents continued by stating in their writing that OSHA was given the explicit mandate to ensure the safety of workers, and as a result, the mandate was appropriate.
The Court granted the Biden Administration’s request to have health workers vaccinated or tested weekly in a separate 5-4 decision.
Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Kavanagh joined the three liberal justices. The majority stated in another unsigned opinion that the Health and Human Services Department has clear statutory authority to impose health requirements on institutions that receive Medicare and Medicaid funds.
As a result, they wrote that the mandate must be followed by almost all hospitals and nursing homes that receive federal funding.
