Conservative Supreme Court Justices Question Vaccine Mandate

“OSHA’s economy-wide, one-size-fits-all mandate covering 84 million Americans is not a necessary, indispensable use of OSHA’s extraordinary emergency power, which this court has recognized is narrowly circumscribed.” “If OSHA had adopted a more targeted rule, you might not be contesting that, or you would not be contesting that — that the problem here is its scope and that there’s no differentiation between the risk faced by unvaccinated 22-year-olds and unvaccinated 60-year-olds or industries. You were just talking about landscapers and people who work primarily outdoors, those and workers who work in an inside environment all day long. So is that the distinction that you’re making? They’re not disputing what Justice Kagan said, that, you know, this is a grave danger and that in some circumstances this rule might be necessary, but just the scope of it makes it different.” “That’s right, Justice Barrett. But I just want to be very clear about this: Wherever that line is, this ETS is so far beyond that line.” “Why should the court grant immediate relief?” “The short version is: As soon as businesses have to put out their plans, and this takes effect, workers will quit. That itself will be a permanent worker displacement that will ripple through the national economy.” “Seven hundred and fifty million new cases yesterday, or close to that, is a lot. I don’t mean to be facetious, but that’s why I said I would find it, you know, unbelievable that it could be in the public interest to suddenly stop these vaccinations. And the only answer that was given was a lot of people will quit. Well, we should consider that.” “Most of us have been subject to compulsory vaccination requirements at various points throughout our lifetime. And so the idea that Congress couldn’t have anticipated that in dealing with the deadliest virus that OSHA has experienced in its history, it might think that vaccination — encouragement of vaccination — would be an appropriate way to protect workers. I think is just inconsistent with the idea that vaccination is often the single most effective way to target a virus.”