Supreme Court Halts Vaccine Mandate That Covered 80M Workers

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-13/supreme-court-halts-osha-rule-that-covered-80-million-workers

by CrankyBear • 5 years ago

50 25 5 years ago

hirundo• 5 years ago

A better article: https://archive.ph/Cyixf#selection-595.0-595.247

"The vote in the employer mandate case was 6 to 3, with liberal justices in dissent. The vote in the health care case was 5 to 4, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh joining the liberal justices to form a majority. ... the court’s conservative majority seemed doubtful that the administration had congressional authorization to impose the requirements."

Does anyone have a guess as to how a vote by Congress to authorize OSHA vaccine mandates would fair? Would it be one of the purely partisan issues, like Build Back Better and the voting legislation? I suppose that the fact that it hasn't already passed is evidence that it wouldn't.

verdverm• 5 years ago

They've certainly passed significant legislation towards covid, yet have not included vaccine mandates in any.

My guess is that by the time anything got through, we'll be past the omicron surge and Americans will be talking inflation and elections.

We might also hear some musing about the conservative supreme court and needing to expand it to change the majority.

MissionInfl2• 5 years ago

Does anyone have a guess as to how a vote by Congress to authorize OSHA vaccine mandates would fair?

If I understand correctly, S.J. Res 29 [1] is a senate resolution that answers this exact question. Looking at the voting result [2], 2 Democrats voted YAY (ie expressing disapproval of the mandate) along with some Independents and all Republicans. This leads me to believe that a similar rule would not pass the Senate. Although there could be more to the story, eg I don't know the motivation that the two Democrats had when voting YAY, especially given at least to my understanding this kind of vote is more symbolic than anything.

[1] https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-joint-re... [2] https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1...

jcadam3• 5 years ago

Not necessarily purely symbolic. It could have been done as a signal to the court that the mandate would not have had congressional approval.

csense• 5 years ago

Why does so much news coverage insist on dividing the Court into "liberal" and "conservative" justices?

It's almost as if the media thinks there's not enough partisanship in the legislative and executive branches, so they need to inject a red vs. blue narrative to the doings of the Supreme Court.

Doesn't SCOTUS typically decide cases more based on technical legal criteria than partisan ideology?

krapp• 5 years ago

Justices are specifically chosen for their liberal or conservative ideology and perceived loyalty in hopes of ruling in favor of the party in power's long term agenda. Republicans appoint conservative justices, Democrats appoint liberal judges. Both assume quid pro quo. Ignoring this fact is simply naive.

zwieback2• 5 years ago

Now it'll be interesting to see where states and large companies go, as they still have the freedom to impose mandates.

dham2• 5 years ago

If an all remote company wants to impose a vaccine mandate I suppose they can...., but I mean it seems like a huge waste of time. Hiring in engineering is already so hard right now no need to make it harder.

hogrider• 5 years ago

Litmus test for determining common sense. Or if you get cynical, "cultural fit".

hindsightbias2• 5 years ago

Large companies with older workers will eventually have to mandate, they can’t afford the long covid costs/insurance. They can’t fire people for smoking or obesity, but this will give them an out.

More youthful companies will punt but check back in when Covid-35 or -40 hits.

I wonder if Health Insurance providers will make it mandatory or have different rates based on vax.

zwieback2• 5 years ago

I'd like to see insurers say "due to COVID our costs have gone up but you can get a discount if you're vaxxed." Increasing just for unvaxxed is probably hard but offering an incentive may work.

Where I work we have a mandate and it's like 98% compliance. A few have opted to go 100% remote so they can avoid the vaccine but practically nobody quit over this.

nradov2• 5 years ago

Due to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), medical insurers can't legally set premiums based on vaccination status. However, employers are generally allowed to cut their contributions to employee insurance premiums on that basis.

jcadam3• 5 years ago

Well, I left my 15+ year career in the defense industry due to Joe's federal contractor mandate. Maybe that one will get struck down next and then I can go back. If I want to.

Supreme Court Halts Vaccine Mandate That Covered 80M Workers

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