Supreme Court rules on vaccine mandates for large businesses and healthcare workers

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) – Today, the Supreme Court of the United States issued rulings on two cases dealing with vaccine requirements—one requiring businesses with 100 or more people to mandate their employees be vaccinated or wear masks and get tested weekly, the other requiring vaccinations for healthcare workers.

The Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration’s mandate for larger businesses. That mandate said the Secretary of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, has the authority to mandate vaccinations to keep workers safe. But the Court’s opinion says, “The question, then, is whether the Act plainly authorizes the Secretary’s mandate. It does not. The Act empowers the Secretary to set workplace safety standards, not broad public health measures.”

The Court’s opinion is exactly what Attorney General Wilson has been saying all along.

“We’ve never seen an administration try to weaponize the federal bureaucracy the way the Biden administration has,” Attorney General Wilson said. “We’re grateful the Supreme Court agrees with us that no president has the authority to mandate vaccines for private employers.”

The Supreme Court did allow to move forward the Biden administration’s requirement for healthcare workers to be vaccinated. That requirement ties the mandate to the federal government’s funding of health care through Medicaid and Medicare. The ruling says, “Congress has authorized the Secretary to impose condi­tions on the receipt of Medicaid and Medicare funds that ‘the Secretary finds necessary in the interest of the health and safety of individuals who are furnished services.’”

Attorney General Wilson said, “While the Court has upheld the legality of the CMS/healthcare mandate, as a matter of public policy I still think it’s garbage. Congress makes the law, not the President.”