Supreme Court to hear challenges to Biden's COVID-19 vaccine rules for health care workers & large companies

Cases challenging President Biden's COVID-19 vaccine mandates will be heard by the Supreme Court.

The justices denied a request for an immediate ruling or a nationwide injunction against the Biden administration's orders.

The justices said in a brief order Wednesday that they would hear challenges to two of the mandates: his order requiring large employers to require COVID-19 vaccination or testing, and a separate mandate requiring health care workers to be vaccinated.

The policies, according to the Biden administration, could affect more than 80 million employees. Over the next six months, OSHA estimates that the vaccine rules will save over 6,500 workers' lives and prevent over 250,000 hospitalizations.

The vaccine requirements were part of a series of steps announced by Mr. Biden in September to combat the spread of COVID-19 in the wake of a spike in cases caused by the Delta variant, which caused a surge of infections toward the end of summer. However, both vaccine measures have been challenged in court.

The court has scheduled oral arguments for January 7, and the rulings will be expedited as the country faces a surge in new COVID-19 infections caused by the new, highly transmissible Omicron variant.

The workplace mandate is now technically in effect, thanks to a federal appeals court decision issued on Friday, while the health-care workers rule has been blocked in roughly half of the states, according to Reuters.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Federal civilian employees to receive pay hike, 2.7% on average

Image
President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Wednesday that makes federal pay raises for many civilian employees effective in 2022. The raises go into effect on January 1st, or during the first pay period of the year. A 2.7% federal pay raise ordered on an average. Some civilian employees, depending on where in the country they work, may receive slightly more based on their locality pay area, while some may technically see a slightly lower figure. General Schedule employees will receive a 2.2 percent federal pay raise across the board in 2022, plus a 0.5 percent locality pay adjustment, for a total 2.7 percent average increase. An official from the Office of Personnel Management confirmed the 2.7 percent federal pay increase to Federal News Network on Wednesday evening. The agency has yet to post detailed pay tables that describe pay rates for each locality pay area. Biden announced plans in August to give civilian employees a 2.7 percent pay increase on average. Wednesday’s order ...
Read more

Biden administration blames wrong COVID-19 vaccine mandate in Oklahoma's lawsuit

On Wednesday, the Biden administration urged a federal judge to dismiss Oklahoma's challenge to the COVID-19 vaccination requirement for National Guard members, claiming that the state failed to challenge the correct mandate. "As a first matter, Plaintiffs fail to challenge the vaccine requirements that apply to the National Guard," the administration said in response to a lawsuit filed by the state and 16 anonymous members of the Oklahoma National Guard on December 2. According to the Biden administration, the lawsuit challenges an executive order issued by President Joe Biden that requires federal employees to be vaccinated, and that order does not apply to the military. The fact that hundreds of law enforcement officers are killed by COVID. to the administration should prevent the state from obtaining a preliminary injunction shielding unvaccinated Oklahoma National Guard members from disciplinary measures. Even if the state had challenged the correct mandate, the admi...
Read more