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Breaking: U.S. Supreme Court Issues Rulings in Vaccine Mandate Cases


That did not take long, did it?  Only a few short days after the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on two coronavirus vaccine mandate cases, we have the Court’s rulings.

Let us start first with the case that dealt with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) requirement that employers with 100 or more employees would be required to have their employees either get the coronavirus vaccine or submit to weekly testing.  For those employees that were not vaccinated, they were required to wear masks while in the workplace.  In a 6 - 3 ruling, the Supreme Court held that while Congress had given OSHA to regulate dangers in the workplace, OSHA did not have Congressional authority to regulate public health measures more broadly.  Consequently, a majority of the Court struck down this mandate.

However, one thing to keep in mind is that an employer, on their own volition, can still require their employees get the vaccine (unless there is a contract or collective bargaining agreement that would require a bargaining process before such a policy was created.)  What today’s ruling from the Court does is say that the federal government cannot mandate this, at least in this instance based upon how OSHA tried to write and enact this particular mandate…despite the fact that employers could still do so at their own will.

The second case centered on a requirement that healthcare workers at facilities that receive Medicare or Medicaid get the coronavirus vaccine as a condition of employment, unless there was a medical or religious exemption.  In a narrow 5 - 4 ruling, the Court upheld this requirement on the grounds that the requirement, issued by the Health & Human Services, was within the scope of authority provided by Congress.

For those for or against coronavirus vaccine mandates, today’s rulings are both a win and a loss.  With that being said, the vaccine mandate for large employers getting struck down is likely to impact more workers across the country.  The question now to consider is whether Congress will attempt to confer additional authority to OSHA in an effort to circumvent today’s ruling and ultimately implement a vaccine mandate for large scale employers?  Something tells me that even with Democrats having majority control of Congress, that would be no easy task and therefore unlikely.


For additional information:   https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/13/supreme-court-ruling-biden-covid-vaccine-mandates.html

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