‘Huge Win’: Business Leaders, Legal Experts Celebrate as Supreme Court Blocks Biden Vaccine Mandate

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Friday, January 14, 2022

‘Huge Win’: Business Leaders, Legal Experts Celebrate as Supreme Court Blocks Biden Vaccine Mandate

Legal experts and business leaders rejoiced Thursday following news that the Supreme Court had blocked President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for private employers.  

The two court rulings allow the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for health care workers to remain in place but block Biden from enforcing the vaccine mandate for companies and other organizations with 100 or more employees.

The mandate for businesses comes from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, an agency of the Labor Department, and was to go into effect Monday.

“Although Congress has indisputably given OSHA the power to regulate occupational dangers, it has not given that agency the power to regulate public health more broadly,” the court said in a 6-3 unsigned opinion.  

“It was disappointing to see Justice Kavanaugh join the court’s majority opinion upholding the CMS [Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services] mandate,” Severino said. “As Justice Thomas explained in his dissent, joined by Justices Gorsuch, Alito and Barrett: ‘Had Congress wanted to grant CMS power to impose a vaccine mandate across all facility types, it would have done what it has done elsewhere—specifically authorize one.’”