Last year was a difficult year for my family in several ways. At the start of the pandemic, my job at the time as a church communications director became stressful, especially after I had to do most of my work from home. We had to make so many on-the-fly decisions and communicate them that I wound up doing something work-related 31 out of 32 consecutive days.
On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to block a vaccine mandate for healthcare workers in Maine, which thus went into effect that day. The particularly strict mandate has a medical exemption but not a religious one. While the majority on the Court did not give an opinion, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote a dissent that was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, as highlighted by Robert Barnes with The Washington Post.
Several U.S. states on Friday mounted multiple federal lawsuits against the Biden administration over its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal workers and contractors.
Congressional Republicans are blasting President Biden’s latest steps to require more people to get vaccinated against COVID-19 as “un-American” and vowing to fight back against them.
The president earlier signed executive orders mandating that all federal workers get vaccinated if they want to keep their jobs. Another order signed by the president requires private federal contractors and sub-contractors to vaccinate their employees as well, with an additional mandate reported to be still in the works.
President Joe Biden’s plan to force American private businesses to implement vaccine mandates may be the greatest executive overreach of power in U.S. history.
