The Supreme Court blocked President Biden’s vaccine or testing requirement aimed at large businesses, but it allowed a vaccine mandate for certain health care workers to go into effect nationwide.
On Friday, the court heard arguments for almost four hours as the number of infections is soaring and 40 million adults in the US are still declining to get vaccinated. The three liberal justices on the court expressed clear approval for the administration’s rules in both areas.
Two sets of rules were issued in November. Here’s a closer look at both of them.
Vaccine or testing requirement for large employers: The first would impact some 80 million individuals and requires large employers to mandate that their employees either get vaccinated or submit to weekly testing.
In the majority opinion, the justices said that although Congress has given the Occupational Safety and Health Administration the power to regulate dangers in the workplace, “it has not given that agency the power to regulate public health more broadly. 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.”
Justices writing for the liberal dissent said the court’s order “seriously misapplies the applicable legal standards” and makes it more difficult for the federal government to “counter the unparalleled threat” of Covid-19. The dissent also said government officials have the “responsibility to respond to workplace health emergencies,” adding the order was within the scope of their authority.
Healthcare workers: The second case concerned a regulation that requires certain health care employees who work for facilities that participate in Medicare or Medicaid programs to obtain vaccinations.
In that dispute, more justices seemed receptive to the Biden administration’s authority, particularly Chief Justice John Roberts, who suggested a closer link exists between health care workers and the vaccine mandates.
The majority opinion said that while the mandate goes further than past measures, officials “never had to address an infection problem of this scale and scope before.”
“In any event, there can be no doubt that addressing infection problems in Medicare and Medicaid facilities is what he does,” the majority added.
Justice Samuel Alito, with whom Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Neil Gorsuch and Justice Amy Coney Barrett join, wrote in the dissent that it is unexplained why “an agency can regulate first and listen later, and then put more than 10 million healthcare workers to the choice of their jobs or an irreversible medical treatment.”
