The Supreme Court temporarily barred the Biden administration's vaccine-or-test rule for major employers on Thursday, but authorized a vaccine-only mandate for federally financed health care.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) employer requirement was struck down by the Supreme Court on a 6-3 vote, preventing it from taking effect until other legal challenges are resolved. Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the more liberal Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan in voting 5-4 to preserve the health-care worker mandate.
Supreme Court blocks Joe Biden's vaccine mandate for businesses
Both approaches, according to the Biden administration are important in order to have as many individuals vaccinated against COVID-19 as feasible. President Biden has stated that he is losing patience with Americans who refuse to be vaccinated against the coronavirus and that the restrictions were put in place to push the issue so that workplaces might be safer.
Employers with at least 100 employees would have been forced to compel all employees to get vaccinated or produce weekly negative coronavirus test results, as well as to wear facial covers while on the job. According to the White House, the directive affected nearly 17 million health-care workers, while the mandate for major businesses would have affected more than 80 million people or roughly two-thirds of the American workforce.
The conservative Supreme Court majority concluded that the employer vaccine-or-test mandate was an overreach, notwithstanding lower court splits. On the merits, the judges concluded the challengers, a group of corporations and 27 Republican-led states were likely to prevail, according to The Hill.
Businesses hail the halting of federal vaccine mandate
The Supreme Court verdict on Thursday, which blocked the Biden administration's vaccine-or-testing mandate for employers was welcomed by businesses and conservative organizations as a win for individual liberty and a boost to the economy.
The court upheld another vaccination mandate for Americans working in health-care institutions that receive government financing through Medicare and Medicaid in a second unsigned judgment issued Thursday. The legislation which goes into force this month is expected to affect ten million people.
According to Biden it will save the lives of patients, physicians, nurses, and other health-care workers. Biden expressed disappointment with the Supreme Court's decision to strike down what he called "common-sense life-saving regulations" for large-business employees.States and individual companies would now have to decide whether to make their workplaces "as safe as feasible for employees" and whether to mandate employees to be vaccinated
Vaccine mandates are a crucial tool for protecting public health and workplace safety, according to the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning public policy group. According to the American Medical Association, the ruling does not throw into doubt the scientific evidence supporting COVID-19 immunizations, as per USA Today.
Republicans celebrate on Supreme Court's decision
Former President Donald Trump and a slew of Republican politicians applauded the court's ruling on Thursday to overturn the Biden administration's COVID-19 vaccine-or-testing mandate for large private companies. The Supreme Court has weighed in on the subject, stating that they were all aware of it. The illegal mandates imposed by Biden are unconstitutional.
Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana, who led a recent Senate push to invalidate the administration's vaccine-or-test rule for private businesses, told Insider at the Capitol on Thursday that the court's ruling had him "jumping up and down." Dr. Anthony Fauci, Biden's main medical advisor, recently stated that the Omicron variation "will eventually catch just about everyone," according to Braun.
In the next six months the order, if executed would have averted 250,000 COVID-19 hospitalizations and saved nearly 6,500 lives. Republican governments and corporations, instantly objected to the requirement alleging that it is an example of government overreach.
The conservative majority of the Supreme Court decided that Congress had not granted the Biden administration the "authority to regulate public health more generally," in a 6-3 ruling. The court's liberals dissented. Kevin McCarthy, the House Minority Leader, called Biden's vaccination requirement "an unconstitutional power grab" on Thursday, Business Insider reported.
