Supreme Court Blocks National Vaccine-Testing Mandate for Employers, Upholds Health Care Mandate

Published January 13, 2022

On January 13, 2022, the Supreme Court blocked the enforcement of a vaccine and testing mandate for employers with more than 100 employees. On the same day, the court decided to uphold the vaccine requirement for health care workers. The mandate was to be enforced via OSHA.

The US Supreme Court indicated that the national mandate in its current form “draws no distinctions based on industry or risk of exposure to COVID–19. Thus, most lifeguards and linemen face the same regulations as do medics and meatpackers.”

A press release from the White House stated that “Today’s decision by the Supreme Court to uphold the requirement for health care workers will save lives: the lives of patients who seek care in medical facilities, as well as the lives of doctors, nurses, and others who work there. It will cover 10.4 million health care workers at 76,000 medical facilities. We will enforce it.

At the same time, I am disappointed that the Supreme Court has chosen to block common-sense life-saving requirements for employees at large businesses that were grounded squarely in both science and the law. This emergency standard allowed employers to require vaccinations or to permit workers to refuse to be vaccinated, so long as they were tested once a week and wore a mask at work: a very modest burden.”

As a result of the Court’s decision, it will now be up to States and employers to decide whether to make vaccines, masking, and other protections from COVID-19 required.

On the opinion, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said “While I am ecstatic the Supreme Court agreed with us and upheld our victory at the Fifth Circuit over OSHA’s mandate on private businesses, I am extremely concerned about the expansive power the Court has now given to the Secretary of HHS under the most flimsy regulatory authority.”

Read the full opinion of the US Supreme Court.