January 7, 2022
Let me explain what happened today.
As I said in this video – the high court heard oral arguments over the CMS and OSHA vaccine or testing mandates for nearly four hours. Like I said yesterday, right now, the court is *not* deciding the general legality of these mandates. The Supreme Court’s decision -at this stage- will only be –whether to allow or block both of the vaccine mandates from taking effect while the cases continue to play out in lower courts. It’s rare that the supreme court gets involved at this stage so as I said yesterday — there’s no way to know when they will rule.
For those of you guys who, like me, were listening, you heard a lot from each of the Justices. They talked a lot. And those comments may make you think they’re going to rule a certain way. If you’re new to this – it’s important for me to explain to you – assuming the Justices will rule a certain way based on what they say in oral arguments is a mistake. Sometimes the Justices say things to test theories not to signal how they’re going to vote.
The other thing I want you to understand is – it’s possible that the justices will allow one of the mandates to continue completely and not the other. Or they may allow both to move forward with some modifications. We just don’t know.
Keep in mind – the CMS mandate for healthcare workers who receive money from Medicare and Medicaid case and the OSHA vaccine or testing mandate case for workers at companies with more than 100 employees will continue in their respective courts whether that’s the Appellate Court or Federal District Court. And depending on the final ruling in those courts, one or both of these cases may end up back at the Supreme Court – but at that point the justices would rule on the merits of the case.
