Top Court acts quickly on Joe vax mandates
The Supreme Court is fast-tracking its debate over President Biden’s COVID vaccine mandates.
The conservative-dominated top court scheduled arguments for Jan. 7 on the rules that cover millions of workers as well as separate rules for health care workers. That’s three days before the judges were supposed to return from their holiday break.
The decision to waste no time to hear the cases suggest the Supremes understand the high stakes as the nation battles the resurgent pandemic fueled by the omicron variant.
“It is critical to protect workers with vaccination requirements and testing protocols that are urgently needed,” the White House said in a statement late Wednesday welcoming the move. “We are confident in the legal authority for both policies.”
Biden has moved aggressively to push all Americans to get vaccinated against COVID.
After ordering federal workers to get the lifesaving shots, Biden’s Labor Department issued regulations requiring all large companies to force employees to either be vaccinated or undergo regular testing.
A separate order required health care workers to be vaccinated so they don’t spread the killer virus to their patients or fellow staff.
Despite mirroring common sense rules for protective shots against other diseases, the rules have come under withering attack from right wing vaccine skeptics.
Court rulings have so far been mixed. A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled 2-1 on Friday that the vaccine or testing regime for workers at larger companies could take effect. The plan requires workers at larger companies to be vaccinated or wear face masks and get tested weekly. The requirement could affect some 84 million U.S. workers.
Republican-led states, conservative organizations and businesses had challenged the requirement after the Occupational Safety and Health Administration published the rule in early November. The rule was to go into effect Jan. 4.
The high court also will hear arguments over a rule published Nov. 5 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid that applies to a wide range of health care providers that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid funding.
It requires their workers to receive the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Dec. 6 and be fully vaccinated by Jan. 4. It was projected to affect more than 17 million workers in about 76,000 health care facilities as well as home health care providers.