However, the court did uphold a mandate for vaccines for employees at hospitals providing Medicare or Medicaid, as health care providers receiving federal funds have had a history of conditions being imposed on them. In addition, the mandate would protect patients from COVID. In both cases, the justices had to decide whether Congress had authorized the executive branch (via agencies like OSHA) to take broad action to address the COVID crisis.
Personally, I disagree with the court's decision to block the mandate for employers. While it's true that "OSHA has never before imposed such a mandate," as the majority argued, these are unprecedented times, and they call for unprecedented actions. Moreover, the US is trailing many countries in vaccination rates, and lives are being lost because of this. The mandate was crucial to protecting workers and raising the US's vaccination rates. Lastly, as the dissenters argued, this should be decided by health experts, not justices. Deferring to federal agencies makes sense because they have the specialized knowledge, and nonpartisanship, needed to make these decisions.
Questions:
- Do you agree with the ruling? Or should this even be the court's decision to make?
- Some have accused the court of becoming too politicized, and of justices being motivated to derail Biden's agenda at all costs. Do you agree? What role should personal political beliefs play in the justices' decisions?
- Do you think businesses will listen to Biden and set their own mandates? What are the costs/risks of doing this and is it worth it?
- https://www.npr.org/2022/01/13/1072165393/supreme-court-blocks-bidens-vaccine-or-test-mandate-for-large-private-companies
- https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-vaccine-mandate-eb5899ae1fe5b62b6f4d51f54a3cd375
- https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/13/us/politics/supreme-court-biden-vaccine-mandate.html
- https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/01/supreme-court-biden-vaccine-mandate-ruling/
6 comments:
I partially agree with the supreme court with not allowing a vaccine mandate. I feel that simply just forcing workers to get a mandate regardless of their beliefs does feel a bit unfair, even though some may not know better. I would prefer that the U.S government continue to work on spreading information and letting workers come to their own conclusions about the vaccine. Furthermore I feel like this is kind of a slippery slope kind of scenario where what lines does OSHA draw when it comes to worker safety. As for the political motives of this, I completely agree that this was political. Maybe not in the sense that it was to foil Joe Biden’s policy agenda (though I don't see that not being the case), but rather just the conservative mindset of the justices. I feel like though this has been the tradition, that many court cases have been political and the justices have voted on certain cases based on political intent. Some examples I can think of are the dred scott case or many of the cases against the New Deal during the great depression. I think despite the best efforts of the government there will always be a political undertone to the justice department, as it is simply part of a democratic government. As for business I feel like it really depends on the business and the owner’s political leanings. I feel some may take a conservative route and let workers choose on their own, or some left leaning ones encourage or force their workers to take the vaccine. Though I feel that in our local area with complaints of worker shortages I think business owners would be more hesitant to harass their employees.
I disagree with the court's decision because I think this mandate really helps prevent the spread of covid and like OSHA has claimed, it would save lives. I do think that Pascal brings up a good point when he mentions that workers would be forced by the mandate to get the vaccine which may be against their beliefs. There have been a few people who have had allergic reactions to the vaccine which would prevent them from being able to get another dose but besides that I do think that if someone who doesn’t want the vaccine works a job that can possibly expose them to covid, they should be more mindful of that. Changing jobs isn’t easy but I don’t think that a mandate would be the end of the world if it meant covid could get a little more under control. To some extent, I believe the courts are always going to be politicized, but I don’t think that a justice’s political beliefs should be what solely plays a role in a decision. I think that it depends on the business and whether they are going to listen to Biden’s mandate. There are pros and cons to both. A business who listens to Biden and sets their own mandate would protect workers from covid but they might lose workers who may not necessarily want to get vaccinated and vice versa. Overall I think a mandate would be worth it because although a business might lose a few workers due to personal beliefs, covid is contagious and running the risk of multiple workers, or more, being out due to being infected isn’t the most responsible decision for business.
I disagree with the ruling of the courts, I think they should force people to get vaccinated. I understand a lot of people are nervous and scared of these vaccines. The Government has done a-lot to try and spread information for the vaccine and try to get people to get it by choice, but its being shown that it is not working. Millions of people are refusing to get vaccinated and putting themselves and people around them in danger. There are some risks, people are allergic but this is why everyone who can get the vaccinee should get it. There are many people who want to get one but they are unable to get it, while alot of selfish people do not get the vaccine and don't think about others. I feel many businesses are not going to follow what the supreme court said, especially ones in more "liberal" states. Since it is a free market companies can do what they want, if you wont get vaccinated then you cant work its simple, but some may not require that or masks, many more conservative states have lower vaccination rates and little mask use. I think it all matters where you live weather vaccine mandates will be listened to
The name of the agency is "Occupational Safety and HEALTH Administration."
Yet according to SCOTUS, being an omnipresent general hazard that also exists in non-occupational settings apparently means that COVID isn't an occupational hazard. Congress didn't create OSHA to keep workers safe at work, it created OSHA to keep workers safe from things that can only exist in a workplace setting. (Huh?)
You see, _public_ health isn't what Congress had in mind when creating the agency, according to SCOTUS, so because someone from the Biden administration tweeted about the employer mandate being good for _public_ health, OSHA lacked statutory authority to issue the mandate protecting _occupational_ health. Because a policy cannot simulataneously relate to two related goals at the same time... ummm OK.
This quality of logic can only be explained by politics.
Too short? Wanna read more? Adam Serwer is a national treasure:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/01/biden-worker-vaccine-mandate-scotus-osha-standard/621249/?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4
I disagree with the court’s ruling of blocking the vaccine mandate. Just as the post mentioned, the mandate could have prevented hundreds of thousands of people from being hospitalized from COVID in only 6 months and have caused 22 million people to get vaccinated. Though this mandate could have exceeded the authority given to the OSHA by Congress, I think that in times of crisis, especially now that we are 2 years deep into this pandemic, sometimes risks and more extreme actions need to be taken for the better good. These mandates could have been a huge first leap out of this pandemic. This virus will not just magically disappear if people ignore it long enough. More mutations will appear and more people will die if people don’t get this vaccine. In my opinion, a mandate should have been implemented a long time ago. I also believe that the court is too politicized, but not because of Biden’s agenda. I think courts are too politicized because of the judges, as many of them are older and more likely to have a conservative mindset. In terms of businesses listening to Biden and setting their own mandate, I think very few will, mainly because of the shortages of employees. Businesses probably, as of now, want as many people who are willing to work as possible and therefore are less likely to implement a mandate on their employees.
I disagree with the court's decision to block the vaccine mandate. I think in the end for businesses, however, one of two things will happen. Either they will wise up, and realize that the key to having an efficient (and present) workforce is vaccination mandates since they might have issues with employees getting COVID, or their employees will become conscientious enough to vaccinate themselves without needing that extra push from a company/government. Businesses and people will have to eventually realize that this vaccine is going to become not only critical for quality of life, but for survival. For the unvaccinated, COVID is a serious threat. Also, we're at the point now where those who are unvaccinated are passionate about it. If someone's company fires them for not having a vaccine, they'll jump to another company that doesn't care (they won't get vaccinated).
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