It was recently reported that on Wednesday, the US Supreme Court announced it will hear oral arguments on two of President Joe Biden’s COVID vaccine mandates – one for private businesses and the other for healthcare facilities – on January 7, 2022, after Justices Alito and Kavanaugh considered requests to stay the mandates.Justice Kavanaugh was petitioned by the challengers to the employer mandate to reverse an appeals court ruling that said the administration could enforce its vaccine-or-testing rules for large companies.
Their decision came in response to an appeal filed after a three-judge panel for the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the mandate for large businesses, for employers with 100 or more employees.
The businesses must require their workers to either get vaccinated or face weekly testing for Covid. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) would be the enforcement mechanism for the administration.
The group challenging the mandate include 27 states with Republican attorneys general or governors, private businesses, religious groups, and national industry associations such as the National Retail Federation, the American Trucking Associations and the National Federation of Independent Business.
Several lower courts have said that the requirement exceeded the authority Congress had given the secretary, while other judges have backed its legality.
The Biden administration proposed the two rules on Nov. 4, which would together cover more than 100 million U.S. workers. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services required 76,000 health facilities that take Medicare or Medicare payments to ensure their 17 million employees were fully vaccinated.
The Department of Labor also proposed its own rule affecting private employers with 100 or more workers, requiring them to get vaccinated or face weekly Covid testing by Jan. 4.
For now, the court is leaving in place the status quo around the requirements.
The Biden administration has said it will not begin enforcing the employer mandate until January 10, and the government has said it’s not implementing the health care worker mandate while the legal challenges play out.
