Justices Finally Strike Biden’s OSHA Covid Mandate

President Biden’s “Get Vaccinated or Tested or Get Fired” mandate for all employees at the largest companies got laid off by the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday, although the cynical OSHA “work around” ploy without Congressional authority was left standing on separate grounds for 10M health care workers. The spread of political overreach is finally stamped out, if only for a day?

The presidential smack down was not that hard to predict since one of two appellate courts & three trial judges had earlier enjoined Mr. Biden’s mandate set to take effect this week. As the WSJ noted, “The private-employer requirements for businesses with 100 or more employees would have applied” to as many as 84M workers. Bottom line: “The court’s conservative majority, in an unsigned opinion, said the Biden administration … didn’t have the unilateral power to impose a mandate that employers ensure their workers were vaccinated or tested every week for Covid-19.” Not surprising as well, three liberal justices dissented.

Drilling down a bit, the court’s majority said the Biden via OSHA mandate scheme “far exceeded” the authority Congress gave the agency when created in 1970: “The Act empowers the Secretary [of Labor] to set workplace safety standards, not broad public health measures.” But while Covid is transmitted in the workplace, it also spreads “at home, in schools, during sporting events, and everywhere else that people gather. That kind of universal risk is no different from the day-to-day dangers that all face from crime, air pollution, or any number of communicable diseases.” On the other hand, two conservatives (Roberts & Kavanaugh) joined the 3 liberal Justices in upholding the Biden mandate for health care workers since it was based on Medicaid & Medicare (not OSHA) regs & its leaders presumably do have the authority to protect the public being serviced via face-to-face contact with health care providers.

Davd Soul