The U.S. Supreme Court plans to hear oral arguments Friday in two cases concerning the federal government’s authority to require vaccination against COVID-19 in certain situations.
In one case, President Joe Biden versus the state of Missouri and nine other states, the issue is whether federal entities including the Department of Health and Human Services can require healthcare facilities participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs to ensure workers are vaccinated, subject to medical and religious exemptions.
During December, a U.S. District Court judge in Missouri suspended imposition of the healthcare worker mandate, saying among other things the rule could create serious staffing shortages at rural hospitals and clinics that tend to be located in areas with low-vaccination rates and already have a tough time finding medical workers.
Also Friday, the Supreme Court, an independent branch of the federal government, will hear arguments on the president’s program to have the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) require large employers to order workers to either be vaccinated against the virus that has killed more than 800,000 Americans, or submit to weekly testing, according to the SCOTUSblog website.
In a 57-page ruling last month, the Cincinnati-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, reinstated OSHA’s “Emergency Temporary Standard” for COVID-19, saying in part the OSHA program. The emergency program does not explicitly require anyone to be vaccinated but allows companies with 100 or more employees to determine how best to minimize the risk of contracting COVID-19 in their workplaces, according to the order. Covered companies that fail to follow the standard can be filed $136,000 for each “willful” violation.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit is requesting briefs by Jan. 24 on a Biden administration appeal of a nationwide injunction issued by a federal judge in Georgia against the White House’s vaccine mandate for federal contractors. The injunction prompted some, but not all, DOE nuclear sites to stop enforcing their vaccine mandates, at least temporarily.
