The Supreme Court on Friday weighed in on whether a vaccine-related mandate from the administration governing large businesses can move forward, putting on display both the national divide over COVID-19 vaccination and highlighting the latest surge, driven by the Omicron variant. While most of the conservative justices sounded sympathetic to business interests and Republican-led states trying to block the rule, liberal justices sounded floored at the arguments that the rule should be stopped, noted Politico.
The broad mandate, from the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) division, requires employers with 100 or more employees to ensure that their workers are vaccinated or tested weekly and wear masks at work. Business owners and Republican state attorneys general sued to block the rule and the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in that challenge.
“There were three quarters of a million new cases yesterday. That’s 10 times as many as when OSHA put this rule in,” Justice Stephen Breyer, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, said. Noting that most hospitals are almost full, he said: “I would find it unbelievable that it could be in the public interest to suddenly stop these vaccinations.”
But Justice Clarence Thomas questioned whether the current danger from COVID amounted to the kind of crisis that justified OSHA using an expedited process to issue an “emergency temporary standard. The vaccine’s been around quite some time. COVID’s been around even longer,” Thomas, an appointee of President George H.W. Bush, said. “The government could have had notice and comment.”
In September, NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association asked President Joe Biden for a public comment period on the OSHA proposed vaccine mandate. NATE said some members fear losing workers over the mandate. The association thought that hearing directly from its small business members would help explain the potential impact on broadband deployment goals, Inside Towers reported.
Among the six Republican-appointed justices, only Chief Justice John Roberts, nominated by President George W. Bush, sounded open to allowing the OSHA rule to take effect. But as the arguments progressed, Roberts seemed more skeptical about the administration’s power to act without specific legislation from Congress, reported Politico.
Ohio Solicitor General Benjamin Flowers was absent from the courtroom after testing positive for Coronavirus last month. By phone, Flowers said the ease of contracting the virus highlights that the OSHA rule doesn’t really address a work-related problem.
Justice Elena Kagan, an appointee of President Barack Obama, disagreed. “Do you know of any workplaces that have not fundamentally transformed themselves in the last two years?” Kagan also noted that workers have less control over contact at work than in other venues. “You have to be there with a bunch of people you don’t know who might be completely irresponsible,” she said.
Lower courts have issued conflicting rulings on the mandate, which covers tens of millions of workers and is central to Biden’s effort to combat the spread of the virus. The justices will likely rule only on whether the administration can continue to enforce the rule while punting the decision on the underlying regulations back to those courts, according to Politico.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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