The U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling blocking the Biden administration from mandating businesses with more than 100 employees to require workers to get COVID shots or submit to weekly testing. A mandate for health care workers was upheld:
The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the Biden administration from enforcing its sweeping vaccine-or-test requirements for large private companies, but allowed similar requirements to stand for medical facilities that take Medicare or Medicaid payments.
The ruling came three days after the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s emergency measure started to take effect.
OSHA has never before imposed such a mandate. Nor has Congress. Indeed, although Congress has enacted significant legislation ad- dressing the COVID–19 pandemic, it has declined to enact any measure similar to what OSHA has promulgated here.
Congress could attempt to establish such a mandate, through legislation and the whole, messy, legislative process. What the court is saying is that a bureaucratic work-around just won’t cut it. It’s a victory for process, and a blow to the administrative state.