Supreme Court Signals Skepticism over Vaxx Mandate
WASHINGTON – A majority of the Supreme Court signaled Friday it is skeptical of the Biden administration’s authority to require millions of Americans who work for large companies to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to weekly testing, as the high court is poised to weigh in substantively on the issue of vaccine mandates for the first time during the coronavirus pandemic.
With the number of infections soaring because of from the omicron variant across the nation, several of the court’s conservative justices indicated that while they believe states may have power to set vaccine requirements it is a different story for federal agencies.
Chief Justice John Roberts asserted that the more federal agencies attempt to create their own vaccine rules the more it appears the federal government is trying to “cover the waterfront” and require vaccines or other COVID-19 policies for the entire population. That, Roberts suggested, should probably be a decision for Congress.
“This has been referred to – the approach – as a workaround,” Roberts said of the requirements. “This is something that the federal government hasn’t done before.”