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.

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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.

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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.

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