Madison Kwiecinski 

News Editor 

Mvk5945@psu.edu 

On Friday, January 2, 2022 the Supreme Court ruled on one of the most contentious issues facing our current society: vaccine mandates. After two years of an ongoing global epidemic, the Supreme Court has finally had to address whether the Biden administration holds the proper authority to issue vaccine mandate requirements. 

 The argument heards in court last Friday lasted nearly four hours and addressed two main issues. Firstly, the court had to rule on whether or not the administration had the authority to enforce vaccine mandates for  almost all workers at hospitals, nursing homes and other medical providers receiving federal Medicare and Medicaid funds. The second ruling addressed the administration’s authority to have issued the vaccine-or-test mandate, which requires private sector businesses with over 100 employees to be vaccinated or tested regularly. 

The vaccine-or-test regulations were originally issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which claimed the authority to do so through Congress’ power to regulate interstate commerce. This is commonly objected to by conservatives, as they believe a Congress uses the Commerce Clause as a means of increasing authority. 

The Biden Administration argued in Court that COVID-19 has already claimed the lives of over 800,000 U.S. citizens and sickened over 50 million more, not including those this has indirectly affected. The administration further argued that, due to the lives already claimed, they were obligated to act under the 1970 Occupational Safety and Health statute. 

The Supreme Court currently has a conservative majority, with only three liberal justices sitting on the bench. The conservative majority seemed to contend that, when regarding the issue involving vaccine mandates in the private sector, that it should be left up to the states. However, several states have banned or outlawed vaccine mandates, and will not be issuing one regardless of the level of coronavirus cases present. 

The vaccine-or-test mandate was stricken down by the court in a 6-3 vote. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration estimated that the vaccine-or-test regulations would have affected more than 80 million people, and would have saved an estimated 6,500 lives and prevented 250,000 hospitalizations. The court ruled that the administration overstepped its authority by issuing this mandate, and that the federal government cannot issue a vaccine mandate for private sector businesses with over 100 employees. 

“OSHA has never before imposed such a mandate. Nor has Congress. Indeed, although Congress has enacted significant legislation addressing the COVID–19 pandemic, it has declined to enact any measure similar to what OSHA has promulgated here,” the conservatives wrote in an unsigned opinion on the issue.

President Joe Biden has called for businesses to implement their own vaccine mandates, noting that many important companies have already done so. Biden also stated he was, “disappointed that the Supreme Court has chosen to block common-sense life-saving requirements for employees at large businesses that were grounded squarely in both science and the law.”

The vaccine mandate for medical providers who receive funding from medicaid and medicare did not face the same opposition in the conservative dominated court, likely because it had less to do with interference in private businesses. The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services vaccine mandate could go into effect nationally. 

In response to the Supreme Court rulings, the American Hospital Association has stated, “We urge any health care providers that are not subject to the CMS requirement to continue their efforts to achieve high levels of vaccination. We must continue to work together as a field to use vaccines as the powerful tool that they are to protect everyone in our communities.”