RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The U.S. Supreme Court has stayed enforcement of the Biden administration’s Covid 19 vaccination requirement for companies with 100 or more employees, which was established as an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rule.
The 6-3 decision was announced today, Thursday.
Announced by President Joe Biden in September but not finalized until two months later, the mandate would have required businesses to ensure their employees were either vaccinated against Covid or tested weekly at their own expense.
It applied to approximately 84 million U.S. workers and overruled any state laws that contradicted it.
“OSHA had never before imposed such a mandate. Nor had Congress,” the court said in the 30-page ruling, accepting the plaintiffs’ claim that it exceeded the agency’s statutory authority and was otherwise unlawful.
“Agreeing that petitioners are likely to prevail, we grant their requests and uphold the rule,” the court said.
OSHA has statutory authority to regulate workplace hazards, but not “everyday hazards simply because most Americans have jobs and face those same hazards while working,” since doing so would significantly expand its authority without clear authorization from Congress, the majority opinion said.