Supreme Court blocks Biden's vaccine mandate for U.S. workers, allows mandate for healthcare workers
The Biden administration's sweeping attempt to mandate vaccines for Americans took a hit Thursday
https://justthenews.com/government/court...aign=newsletter
By Sophie Mann
Updated: January 13, 2022 - 3:16pm

In a Thursday afternoon ruling, the Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration's OSHA vaccine mandate that would apply to American workers.

The court allowed a separate policy, that requires vaccinations for most health-care workers at facilities that receive Medicaid and Medicare funding, to stand.

The court's majority was doubtful that the administration possesses the legal authority to impose a workplace vaccine mandate, which would have accounted for about 80 million employees. The healthcare worker mandate, on the other hand, accounts for about 17 million U.S. healthcare workers.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh were the only members of the court to find themselves in the majority on both decisions. All three Democrat-appointed justices dissented from the decision to block the workplace vaccine mandate. Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Barrett dissent from the decision to allow the healthcare worker mandate to take effect.-- excerpt, rest at link above --

White House Calls on Businesses to Ignore Supreme Court Decision on Vaccination and Force the Vaccine Mandate Regardless of Constitutional Merit
January 13, 2022 | Sundance | 650 Comments

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/01/13/white-house-calls-on-businesses-to-ignore-supreme-court-decision-on-vaccination-and-force-the-vaccine-mandate-regardless-of-constitutional-merit/

Not to be deterred by such pesky inconveniences as a Supreme Court decision, immediately after the high court ruled the vaccine mandate was unconstitutional federal overreach – the White House told employers to enforce the vaccine mandate anyway.

White House Spokesperson Jennifer Psaki said the Biden administration would “not be deterred” by the Supreme Court decision, and all employers should immediately continue to “initiate vaccination requirements.” WATCH:

5 Important Quotes from Justice Thomas's Dissent in Biden v. Missouri
Leah Barkoukis | Posted: Jan 14, 2022

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2022/01/14/clarence-thomas-dissent-n2601851

The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the Biden administration’s vaccine-or-test mandate for large private employers but temporarily allowed a separate vaccine requirement for healthcare workers to take effect while challenges continue in lower courts.

In Biden v. Missouri, which concerns a vaccine mandate for healthcare employees at Medicare and Medicaid-certified facilities, the justices were split 5-4.

--snipped--

Justices Clarence Thomas filed a dissenting opinion, which was joined by Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett.

Below are some of the most important quotes from that opinion.

1. "Here, the omnibus rule compels millions of healthcare workers to undergo an unwanted medical procedure that 'cannot be removed at the end of the shift,' In re MCP No. 165, 20 F. 4th 264, 268 (CA6 2021) (Sutton, C. J., dissenting from denial of initial hearing en banc)."

2. "The Government has not made a strong showing that this agglomeration of statutes authorizes any such rule. To start, 5 of the 15 facility-specific statutes do not authorize CMS to impose 'health and safety' regulations at all. [...] These provisions cannot support an argument based on statutory text they lack. Perhaps that is why the Government only weakly defends them as a basis for its authority."

3. "[T]he Government proposes to find virtually unlimited vaccination power, over millions of healthcare workers, in definitional provisions, a saving clause, and a provision regarding long-term care facilities’ sanitation procedures. The Government has not explained why Congress would have used these ancillary provisions to house what can only be characterized as a 'fundamental detail' of the statutory scheme. Had Congress wanted to grant CMS power to impose a vaccine mandate across all facility types, it would have done what it has done elsewhere—specifically authorize one."

4. "If Congress had wanted to grant CMS authority to impose a nationwide vaccine mandate, and consequently alter the state-federal balance, it would have said so clearly. It did not."

5. "These cases are not about the efficacy or importance of COVID–19 vaccines. They are only about whether CMS has the statutory authority to force healthcare workers, by coercing their employers, to undergo a medical procedure they do not want and cannot undo. Because the Government has not made a strong showing that Congress gave CMS that broad authority, I would deny the stays pending appeal. I respectfully dissent."



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Di Leo: Getting the Jab and Doing Your Job

By John F. Di Leo - Friday, January 14, 2022

https://www.illinoisreview.com/illinoisreview/2022/01/getting-the-jab-and-doing-your-job.html


Joe Biden wants everyone to be vaccinated against the China Virus commonly known as Covid-19.

Whether that’s a good idea or not is at this point an open question. The vaccines and boosters currently available appear to be ineffective at preventing people from catching the virus, but there is evidence often interpreted as proof that they are effective in reducing the danger of the virus to those who do catch it. There is also evidence often interpreted as proof that they are dangerous, often causing severe heart ailments in otherwise healthy people. The oddity here is that the virus may be most dangerous to people who are already sick, and the vaccine may be most dangerous to people who are otherwise healthy.

With billions of people getting doses of brand new vaccines, it is difficult to tell – because much of the information is censored – whether these side effects are statistically worthy of note, or are so rare, statistically speaking, that we shouldn’t worry about them. Anyone on either side who says this is a clear-cut issue is jumping to conclusions. We simply can’t be sure yet.

So, most reasonable people’s natural gut instinct is to treat this like the annual flu shot, and make a personal decision on whether to take this particular vaccine or not.

Just like the annual flu shot, employers have the right to encourage it. Just like the annual flu shot, employers even have the right to offer to pay for it, or to have their health insurance benefit pay for it. They don’t have to; but they certainly can.

Joe Biden, however, who sat in the Senate for thirty-five years, then sat in the White House for another eight, and now sits in his basement playing statist-in-chief, isn’t satisfied with the Covid-19 vaccines being optional. He wants them to be mandatory.

He can't do this. Legally, his role does not include that power.

So Joe Biden had what must have seemed to him like a brilliant idea. He stood up one day last fall and said he was going to issue a national order that all employers, public and private, who employ 100 people or more, have to mandate Covid-19 vaccination on their own employees.

Since he couldn’t order it himself, but he supervises OSHA, he figured he could just tell OSHA to issue the mandate, and have OSHA force all these private employers to issue their own mandate, like the chain of command in an army: The general orders the colonels, the colonels pass on the orders to the majors, and so forth.

There was a problem with this, however. Not only does Joe Biden not have this power… neither does OSHA.


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