January 13, 2022
LATE UPDATE
Two quick updates on this video I posted earlier about the Supreme Court’s vaccine mandate ruling. One is a clarification and the other is a concession.
First – the clarification – I said the Supreme Court ruled – for now – the OSHA vaccine mandate is blocked while the case plays out in lower court and the CMS vaccine mandate can move forward for now while the case plays out in lower court. That confused a lot of you so let me clarify. The reason is I said “for now” is – the high court wasn’t ruling generally on the constitutionality of the vaccine mandates they were ruling whether or not the temporary injunctions – the nationwide pauses – should continue while the cases played out in lower courts.
Now – technically – these cases will go back to the lower courts and courts of appeals to continue over whether each as a mandate is constitutionally viable, but the writing is on the wall for each of them. The lower courts are unlikely to give a different opinion from the supreme court. They could – certainly – but it’s not likely.
Second – the concession. It appears the White House is giving up mandating a vaccine for workers with more than 100 employees. The White House put out a statement after today’s ruling that said “it is now up to states and individual employers to determine whether to make their workplaces as safe as possible for employees and whether their businesses will be safe for consumers.” The President went on to encourage states and employers to mandate the vaccine on their own. As I told you earlier today, your state or employer can legally still require a vaccine as a term of employment unless such mandates are banned in your state.
Read the White House statement here.
