U.S. Supreme Court prepares to decide whether to block Joe Biden’s Covid-19 vaccine mandates for large businesses and healthcare workers.
QUICK FACTS:
- The court is set to hear in-person arguments on Friday, Jan 7, regarding emergency requests in two separate cases by challengers including business groups, religious entities, and various Republican-led U.S. states for orders blocking the vaccine requirements, Reuters reports.
- As the rulings are expected to come soon, challengers to the mandate argue that the Biden administration has overstepped its authority.
- The court’s 6-3 conservative majority in the past has shown skepticism toward sweeping actions by federal agencies, Reuters notes.
- While the justices have rejected several religious-based challenges to state vaccine requirements, Friday’s cases will be the first tests of the federal government’s authority to issue vaccine mandates.
- Firms, business trade associations, and 27 states say that the Biden administration has exceeded its authority at the workplace safety agency with these mandates, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
STATE V. FEDERAL:
- “There are certain powers that are reserved to the states and this goes all the way back to our nation’s founding,” said Zack Buck, a University of Tennessee College of Law professor who specializes in health law, USA Today reports.
- “That means that when it comes to public health authority, the state is often the entity that has the ability to enforce vaccination mandates,” he said. “And that’s why these federal vaccination mandates become much more interesting, much more unsettled.”
BACKGROUND:
- The nine justices have spent the bulk of the pandemic working remotely, Reuters also noted, a court representative reporting all justices are fully vaccinated and have received booster doses.
- The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, the regulatory body for workplace safety, has said it could begin fining businesses that fail to comply with the mandates $13,600 per violation, on Jan 10.
