Joe Biden ignores appeals court order blocking vaccine mandate for private sector employers
The White House is telling private sector employers to proceed with Joe Biden’s COVID vaccine mandate despite a Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals order blocking its implementation.
Early last week, Joe Biden’s U.S. Department of Labor announced plans to issue a COVID vaccine mandate rule requiring private sector businesses with 100 or more employees to have all their workers either get vaccinated or get periodic testing — a plan that became official at week’s end when it took effect on Friday after being published in the Federal Register.
Employees who refuse to comply with the mandate face disciplinary action, including possible termination. And companies that don’t comply face fines of up to $13,600 per violation.
On Saturday, however, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked implementation of Biden’s vaccine mandate due to the “grave statutory and constitutional issues” involved with it.
Lacking the authority necessary under the Constitution to implement a vaccine mandate on private sector businesses, Biden used an “emergency temporary standard” (ETS) issued under the auspices of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the home of bureaucrats responsible for protecting employees from workplace hazards.
And while Biden thought this end run around the Constitution would allow him to implement his plan, the Fifth Circuit disagreed, and determined that as a legal strategy, using OSHA leaves the vaccine mandate open to challenges on both statutory and constitutional grounds (via Reason.com):
The White House described the mandate as part of a broader effort to boost the nationwide vaccination rate. The aim, it said, is to “reduce the number of unvaccinated Americans by using regulatory powers and other actions to substantially increase the number of Americans covered by vaccination requirements.”
But the federal government has no general authority to protect public health, control communicable diseases, or require vaccination, all of which are primarily state responsibilities. The administration therefore presented the vaccine mandate as an “emergency temporary standard” (ETS) issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which is charged specifically with protecting employees from workplace hazards. As the 5th Circuit indicated, that legal strategy leaves the mandate open to challenge on both statutory and constitutional grounds.
The plaintiffs in BST Holdings v. OSHA, who are represented by the Chicago-based Liberty Justice Center and Louisiana’s Pelican Institute for Public Policy, argue that the ETS exceeds the agency’s authority under the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Even if it didn’t, they say, empowering OSHA to issue such a sweeping order would exceed the federal government’s power to regulate interstate commerce and violate the nondelegation doctrine, which constrains lawmaking by executive agencies.
The ETS option, which OSHA rarely uses, allows the agency to circumvent the usual rule making process, which typically takes years, by imposing regulations that take effect immediately upon publication. But to avoid the public notice, comment, and hearing requirements that ordinarily apply to OSHA rules, the agency has to identify a “grave danger” to employees “from exposure to substances or agents determined to be toxic or physically harmful or from new hazards.” It also has to show the emergency standard is “necessary to protect employees from such danger.”
For a rundown on the extensive list of arguments made by the plaintiffs in this case, I invite you to read the entire Reason.com piece.
Despite the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals order blocking his vaccine mandate, Joe Biden is undeterred, and in a meeting with reporters yesterday, White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre — who was filling in for the vaccinated Jen Psaki after she contracted COVID — told America’s private sector employers to proceed implementing it post haste:
“We think people should not wait. We say, do not wait to take actions that will keep your workplace safe. It is important and critical to do and waiting to get more people vaccinated will lead to more outbreaks and sickness.
“We’re trying to get past this pandemic, and we know the way to do that is to get people vaccinated.”
“The administration clearly has the authority to protect workers, and actions announced by the president are designed to save lives and stop the spread of COVID-19.”
Jean-Pierre also informed reporters that the Justice Department would be defending the rule in court.
Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain, also parroted his boss’ pro-COVID vaccine mandate talking points over the weekend. “I’m quite confident that when this finally gets fully adjudicated, not just a temporary order, the validity of this requirement will be upheld,” White House chief of staff Ron Klain said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “If OSHA can tell people to wear a hard hat on the job, to be careful around chemicals, it can put in place these simple measures to keep our workers safe.”
Unfortunately, many private sector businesses have already surrendered to COVID tyranny and are making moves to implement their own vaccine mandates for employees.
Meanwhile, nearly 40 percent of unvaccinated workers have already decided to leave their jobs if their employer tries to implement and enforce vaccine mandates or implement weekly testing for the virus, according to survey results from the Kaiser Family Foundation Covid-19 Vaccine Monitor.
Joe Biden’s vaccine mandates for private sector businesses lead to one incontrovertible end: Government’s tyrannical rule over every aspect of our lives:
- If you work for the government, you must comply with vaccine mandates.
- If you don’t work for the government but receive government benefits — benefits you paid for by the way — you must comply with vaccine mandates.
- If you run a private sector business, it’s only through the benevolence of the government, which means that if you want to stay in business, you will comply with and enforce vaccine mandates.
It’s an indisputable fact that COVID tyranny is the end goal, which is why Joe Biden is telling private sector businesses to proceed with his vaccine mandate despite the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals order blocking its implementation.
Welcome to the “new normal.”
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.
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