Just under ten legal challenges to the Biden Administration’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate have now been sent to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Those challenges say that an order announced earlier this fall by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration requiring that companies with more than 100 employees must either mandate vaccinations or conduct regular Covid-19 testing exceeds the authority of that agency.
To date, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans has issued an emergency stay of the vaccine mandate. But a ruling late last week from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati supported the mandate.
Challenges to the mandate have been filed by the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the Job Creators Network, and attorneys general from 25 states.
The ongoing battle is now being dominated by dates: The Supreme Court has asked the Biden Administration to respond to all challenges no later than December 30.
Meanwhile, the OSHA mandate is requiring companies to ensure that their employees are either vaccinated or implementing weekly Covid-19 tests as of January 4.
At the same time, OSHA has said it won’t begin to punish employees for failing to impose the mandate until January 10, with a deadline of February 9 for the Covid-19 tests.
By Garry Boulard
