The Supreme Court has blocked Biden’s vaccine mandate, a big win for private employers

In a big win for the American people, the US Supreme Court today blocked the Biden administration’s Covid-19 vaccine rules for large private employers. However, the court ALLOWS a vaccine mandate for workers at federally funded health care facilities to take effect nationwide. That decision may affect more than 10 million healthcare workers.

In its ruling, the Supreme Court said, “Although Congress has indisputably given OSHA the power to regulate occupational dangers, it has not given that agency the power to regulate public health more broadly,” the court said. “Requiring the vaccination of 84 million Americans, selected simply because they work for employers with more than 100 employees, certainly falls in the latter category.”

The decision comes three months after OSHA suspended the vaccine mandate after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted a motion to stay that found it likely to be struck down as unconstitutional.

Breaking: The Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration’s Covid-19 vaccine rules for large private employers but allowed a vaccine mandate for more than 10 million healthcare workers https://t.co/FEEmnRl3rR

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) January 13, 2022

It all started on November 4 when the Biden administration ordered U.S. companies to get all their employees fully vaccinated by January 4, 2022, or face a penalty as high as $136,532 for a willful violation.

The newly released rules were issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration under the Labor Department. The rules apply to businesses with 100 or more employees. In a 490-page document, OSHA said:

“The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is issuing an emergency temporary standard (ETS) to protect unvaccinated employees of large employers (100 or more employees) from the risk of contracting COVID-19 by strongly encouraging vaccination. Covered employers must develop, implement, and enforce a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy, with an exception for employers that instead adopt a policy requiring employees to either get vaccinated or elect to undergo regular COVID-19 testing and wear a face covering at work in lieu of vaccination.”

According to the requirements, all unvaccinated workers must begin wearing masks by December 5 and provide a negative Covid test on a weekly basis after the January deadline.

Below is the entire ruling.