Pirate's Cove

The oral arguments were a little crazy at the Supreme Court, at least from the silly liberals on the Court. I can’t find where OSHA mandates a vaccine for anything else, and one of the arguments is that the mandate is requiring people to do something when not at work. Wearing a hardhat is one thing; sticking a vaccine in your body is another. Would liberals be OK if the Biden admin mandated that all females in the U.S. military be on birth control, because a woman getting pregnant would cause problems with the military mission?

The Supreme Court just signaled it could block Biden’s nationwide vaccine mandate

The future of the Biden administration’s COVID vaccine and testing mandates appears to be in jeopardy following arguments before the Supreme Court on Friday, potentially doing away with nationwide workplace rules around COVID, and creating major uncertainty for companies across the country.

As new cases of COVID surged nationwide this week, justices heard oral arguments on Friday to determine whether or not to halt federal vaccine and testing mandates for health care workers put in place by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and a mandate for private employers with at least 100 workers put in place by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Business lobbies, religious groups, and states with Republican leaders have led legal challenges against the mandates, arguing the agencies implementing them are overreaching their authority. On Friday, Scott Keller, a former solicitor general of Texas, argued in front of the court that the OSHA mandate will likely harm the U.S. workforce should employees quit over these vaccine mandates.

Meanwhile the Biden administration has contended that these mandates are necessary to protect workers and health care providers amid a global pandemic. “The court should reject the argument that the agency is powerless to address the grave dangers,” U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said while arguing for the merits of the OSHA mandate.

Reading all sorts of different outlets, she was unable to explain why it was a grave danger now, when it wasn’t a grave danger 9 months ago. Nor why the mandate was set to be implemented 3 months after the OSHA regulation came out.

Justices Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer, and Sonia Sotomayor seemed to be in support of mandates, particularly in regard to a mandate for health care workers.

“There are 750,000 people who got this yesterday. Hospitals are full to overflowing. There is a problem. It seems to me that every minute these things are not in effect, thousands more people are getting this disease,” Breyer said Friday.

Yet, depending on the area, you are seeing anywhere from 40% to 79% of the cases being vaccinated people. Two of the lawyers arguing against the mandate had to do so remotely, and both were vaccinated.

Labor and employment litigation expert Jim Paul of Ogletree Deakins tells Fortune he came to the same conclusion: “Although my crystal ball has been broken during the entire pandemic, it seems that a majority of the justices are leaning towards staying the enforcement of the OSHA ETS [emergency temporary standard],” Paul says, adding that all of the justices asked questions and commented during the OSHA portion of the oral arguments on Friday.

When it comes to the health care worker mandate, many are prognosticating that it may well stand (and we’ve already seen lots and lots of health care workers quit/be terminated over mandates). For the business one, another question is “when does it end?”

(USA Today) During more than three hours of arguments, Chief Justice John Roberts said that the federal government appeared to be trying to “cover the waterfront” and require vaccines or other COVID-19 policies for much of the nation rather than for limited populations. That, Roberts suggested, should probably be a decision for Congress rather than federal agencies.

“This has been referred to – the approach – as a workaround,” Roberts said of the requirements. “Fifty years ago Congress passed a general provision but I think certainly it’s hard to argue…that that gives free rein to the agencies.”

Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch noted it is states that usually set public health requirements.

“If there is an ambiguity, why isn’t this a major question that therefore belongs to the people’s representatives in the states and in the halls of Congress?” he asked.

All those vaccines you take to go to school are mandated by the States, not the federal government, hence why SCOTUS never took up cases involving mandates from states and colleges.

Will ‘Forever Boosting’ Beat the Coronavirus?

A year ago, just two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine — or even one, in the case of Johnson & Johnson’s formulation — were thought to offer sufficient protection against the coronavirus.

Now, faced with the extraordinarily contagious omicron variant, Israel has begun offering fourth doses to some high-risk groups. On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expanded eligibility for boosters to adolescents and backed away from describing anyone as “fully vaccinated” because two shots no longer seem adequate.

Instead, one’s vaccination status will now be “up to date” — or not. It’s no surprise that many Americans are wondering: Where does this end? Are we to roll up our sleeves for booster shots every few months?

Again, I recommend getting vaccinated. I recommend taking the booster. If this is still around come April, I’ll get another booster. I don’t like to be sick, even if the symptoms are mild. It’s not up to the U.S. federal government to mandate this. Especially when it will be open ended. If they want to do this, have Congress try and pass a law.