Biden pulls failed emergency OSHA mandate for COVID shots

 

President Joe Biden delivers remarks before receiving a COVID-19 booster shot in the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Monday, Sept. 27, 2021, at the White House. (Official White House photo by Cameron Smith)
President Joe Biden delivers remarks before receiving a COVID-19 booster shot in the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Monday, Sept. 27, 2021, at the White House. (Official White House photo by Cameron Smith)

The Joe Biden administration says it will pull back on its failed emergency OSHA COVID-shot mandate for tens of millions of workers at companies that employ more than 100 people.

The proposed emergency workplace “rule” was suggested in November, and would have required those employees – estimated at 80 million or more – to take the experimental COVID-19 shots.

The Supreme Court recently ruled it could not be enforced.

So, according to Just the News, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has withdrawn its plan for that specific strategy.

The Department of Labor confirmed, “On January 13, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed the Vaccination and Testing ETS, finding that challengers were likely to prevail on their claims.

“After evaluating the Court’s decision, OSHA is withdrawing the Vaccination and Testing ETS as an enforceable emergency temporary standard … Notwithstanding the withdrawal of the Vaccination and Testing ETS, OSHA continues to strongly encourage the vaccination of workers against the continuing dangers posed by COVID-19 in the workplace.”

First Liberty Institute represented three national religious ministries, Daystar Television Network, the American Family Association and Answers in Genesis, who had opposed the federal demand.

The organization pointed out that OSHA still could adopt the demand as a “permanent rule.”

“The Supreme Court made it clear that the President Biden administration’s attempt to federalize the nation’s workforce is blatantly unconstitutional,” said Kelly Shackelford, chief of the institute. “OSHA had no choice but to withdraw its unlawful ETS, but it needs to completely put an end to this dangerous government overreach. We will continue to fight on behalf of our clients and the American people to protect them from being forced to violate their faith.”

Daystar Television Network is an international, faith-based network “dedicated to spreading the Gospel 24 hours a day, seven days a week”; America Family Association is one of the largest pro-family organizations in the country; Answers in Genesis is a world-class, Christ-centered, family attraction, with physical properties—one a full-scale replica of Noah’s Ark—located in northern Kentucky. Each organization has over 100 employees, making them subject to the vaccine mandate.

WND reported on the Supreme Court’s decision that by a 6-3 vote, the justices suspended Biden’s nationwide workplace COVID shot mandate.

The majority opinion, per curiam, explained the administration, through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, demanded the mandate, “which employers must enforce,” for “roughly 84 million employees.”

The mandate requires that workers gets a COVID-19 “vaccine” and it overrules state laws to the contrary.

“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 opinion said.

“Many states, businesses, and nonprofit organizations challenged OSHA’s rule in courts of appeals … the Fifth Circuit initially entered a stay. But when the cases were consolidated before the Sixth Circuit, that court lifted the stay and allowed OSHA’s rule to take effect. ”

Before the high court was a request for “emergency relief,” on the basis that the requirement exceeds the government agency’s authority.

“Agreeing that applicants are likely to prevail, we grant their applications and stay the rule.”

The opinion noted that OSHA is allowed to create emergency rules, a provision that had been used nine times earlier. But of those challenged in court, only one eventually was upheld in full in court disputes.

The Biden rule, which his administration already had admitted was a “work-around” to constitutional limits, was described by the court as a “blunt instrument.”

“It draws no distinctions based on industry or risk of exposure to COVID-19. Thus, most lifeguards and lineman face the same regulations as do medics and meatpackers.”

The opinion said those challenging the requirement “are likely to succeed on the merits of their claim that the secretary lacked authority to impose the mandate. Administrative agencies are creatures of statute. They accordingly possess only the authority that Congress has provided. The secretary has ordered 84 million Americans to either obtain a COVID-19 vaccine or undergo weekly medical testing at their own expense. This is no ‘everyday exercise of federal power.'”

“It is instead a significant encroachment into the lives – and health – of a vast number of employees.”

The law, the ruling said, “does not” authorize the secretary’s mandate. OSHA can set “workplace” safety standards, “not broad public health measures.”

The three liberals on the bench, Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, who previously claimed incorrectly that 100,000 children were hospitalized and in poor condition, joined in a dissent that promoted mandatory shots whenever the government would choose such a course.

In their dissent, they appeared to skate by the fact that the vaccines are experimental, that there are huge – sometimes fatal – side effects from the shots, and more.

The three accused their own colleagues on the bench of “acting outside” of their “competence.”

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This article was originally published by the WND News Center.

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