Biden administration vaccine rules — such as the OSHA rule that employees of large companies either be vaccinated or submit to weekly testing — sound in peril based on Talking Points Memo’s account of oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court.’
If this court strips power from OSHA on this administrative matter — saying it’s an issue for Congress — it has obvious ramifications for all kinds of administrative decisions. And, remember, as long as the Senate retains the filibuster, Republicans will block anything and everything a Democratic administration proposes.
Some outlandish comments from Alito, particularly, though he’s by no means alone in the conservative claque rammed through the Senate. Example:
A summary of what just happened:
Alito: Being vaccinated is a permanent state outside the workplace, how does that not exceed OSHA’s authority?
Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar: Well this rule specifically provides an option for people who don’t want to be vaccinated — they can be tested and masked instead.
Alito: Well I’m not talking about that, I’m talking about vaccines.
Chief Justice Roberts offers no hope of joining the forces for good health.
Wow. Chief Justice John Roberts is going on a tirade against the exercise of federal government power — he called the agency-by-agency COVID-19 precautions a “workaround,” essentially a cover of mass federal action.
“Why doesn’t Congress have a say in this, why isn’t it the primary responsibility of the states?” he asked.
This is the specific thing court-watchers have been worried about: the Court denying the power of federal agencies, often under the guise of sending authority back to Congress. Everyone — including the justices — knows that the Senate is basically incapable of governing right now, and almost certainly incapable of getting anything like a vaccine mandate passed.
PS: I should have said this is one of those cases Attorney General Leslie Rutledge has joined to fight the public interest in good health.