Biden administration's vaccine mandate blocked by Supreme Court

The Biden administration's vaccine-or-test rule for businesses with 100 workers or more has been blocked by the Supreme Court on Thursday. It has however been granted a separate request to allow the vaccine mandate for healthcare workers. The high court said in an unsigned opinion on the rule from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) that a slew of GOP-led states, businesses, and non-profit organizations that challenged the mandate are "likely to prevail." 

The court added, "Although Congress has indisputably given OSHA the power to regulate occupational dangers, it has not given that agency the power to regulate public health more broadly. Requiring the vaccination of 84 million Americans, selected simply because they work for employers with more than 100 employees, certainly falls in the latter category."

President Biden first announced the vaccine mandate in September as part of a broader strategy to combat the Delta variant, which drove a surge of infections towards the end of the summer. The new decisions now come less than a week after the justices heard an oral argument on emergency requests regarding the vaccine requirements for healthcare workers. 

Source: CBS News