Pirate's Cove

It’s a funny thing: people constantly talk about how the government mandates citizens to get vaccines, such as for smallpox, measles, mumps. Except, those mandates are not coming from the federal government, they are primarily from the state governments, because there is no actual law nor constitutional authority to impose vaccines on U.S. civilians. Sure, they could force members of the military who haven’t had them, and probably employees of the executive branch. That’s pretty much it for U.S. citizens. And, the Brandon admin still has to win for the 100+ employee mandate. So, sure, let’s go further

Surgeon General Murthy: Vaccine Mandate for Smaller Businesses Not Off the Table

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that President Biden’s administration has not ruled out a federal vaccine requirement for small businesses.

Anchor Martha Raddatz said, “Labor Secretary Marty Walsh defending those new vaccines and testing requirements for companies with 100 or more employees. It comes amid pushback over two dozen states and a new legal challenge in court.”

She added, “Let’s start with those legal challenges. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday blocked the mandate citing grave and statutory and constitutional issues. I know you’re not a lawyer, but is the administration confident this can survive the legal challenges?”

Murthy said, “Well, Martha, the president and the administration wouldn’t have put these requirements in place if they didn’t think they were appropriate and necessary….

It may be appropriate and necessary, but, that doesn’t make it legal and Constitutional. Certainly not at the federal level

The administration is certainly prepared to defend them, but let’s step back for a moment and just look at why these are so important. Throughout our history that we have seen, we had to use vaccine requirements to protect the population, starting back with George Washington when he required troops be inoculated for smallpox, and schools started having vaccine requirements.

Yes, troops. We also had no Constitution and no laws during the War for Independence.

If you think about our workplace, it’s important our workplaces are safe, that workers feel safe, and our customers feel safe. We know at this point in the pandemic when we’ve come so far, and we have 75,000 cases a day, it’s important we take every measure possible to make our workplaces safer.”

Same people said there was no way we’d have a vaccine this soon. Nor do they give any legal reason why civilians should be forcibly vaccinated.

Raddatz asked, “If the law survives legal challenges, will the administration be extending the mandate to smaller employers with fewer than 100 employees?”

Murthy said, “Well, Martha, certainly nothing is off the table at this moment, but the focus is implementing the current rule that OSHA put out. Let me just emphasize that what we put out in a report recently is that average businesses that put these requirements in place see a 20% vaccination rate increase, boosting them in the 90s. If vaccines are a key pathway out of the pandemic, this will do a lot to get us toward the finish line.”

Sure, this will cause no problems with small businesses. Further, these same people aren’t requiring illegal aliens to be vaccinated before they cross the border, eh?

Read: Surgeon General Says Mandates For Small Businesses Still On The Table »

How quick will this make it to the Supreme Court? Or will it wind its way through federal court prior?

Appeals court stays vaccine mandate on larger businesses

A federal appeals court on Saturday temporarily halted the Biden administration’s vaccine requirement for businesses with 100 or more workers.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted an emergency stay of the requirement by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration that those workers be vaccinated by Jan. 4 or face mask requirements and weekly tests.

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said the action stops President Joe Biden “from moving forward with his unlawful overreach.”

“The president will not impose medical procedures on the American people without the checks and balances afforded by the constitution,” said a statement from Landry, a Republican.

The U.S. Labor Department’s top legal adviser, Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda, said the department is “confident in its legal authority to issue the emergency temporary standard on vaccination and testing.”

OSHA has the authority “to act quickly in an emergency where the agency finds that workers are subjected to a grave danger and a new standard is necessary to protect them,” she said.

Perhaps Nanda could explain to the courts, and to the American people, why, almost two years after COVID started, this is now a grave danger, especially when the COVID vaccines do not stop people from getting or giving COVID, unlike vaccines for measles, polio, and smallpox? Why they decided that January 4th was the implementation day, when Joe announced this in September? And that the rule is pretty much open ended, with no end date? Seriously, if this is an emergency order, why is there no end date? The rule itself provides no end date for when companies have to stop requiring employees to be vaccinated or wearing masks/get weekly tests if not vaccinated.

And that is a problem. What if another bad variant, such as Delta, pops up two years from now: might they add to the rule, requiring boosters? Heck, even without, might they require a booster 6 months after people are fully vaccinated? An emergency order should have an end date.

Such circuit decisions normally apply to states within a district — Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, in this case — but Landry said the language employed by the judges gave the decision a national scope.

“This is a great victory for the American people out there. Never before has the federal government tried in a such a forceful way to get between the choices of an American citizen and their doctor. To me that’s the heart of the entire issue,” he said.

At least 27 states filed lawsuits challenging the rule in several circuits, some of which were made more conservative by the judicial appointments of President Donald Trump.

I’ll say again, if the vaccines were like the ones we are required to take to go to school, to travel overseas, ones like polio, smallpox, measles, mumps, tetanus, etc, and were like 98-100% good in stopping people from getting COVID and from transmitting, then a mandate might make sense. I’d be fine with it. Otherwise, I’m still pro-vax-anti-mandate.

(Breitbart) The ruling from a three-judge panel on Saturday resulted from a stay sought by the states of Texas, Utah, Mississippi and South Carolina, as well as several businesses that opposed the Biden plan. The states and businesses filed a petition of review of the agency action, which goes directly to a federal appeals court instead of a one-judge federal district trial court.

“Because the petitions give cause to believe there are grave statutory and constitutional issues with the Mandate, the Mandate is hereby stayed pending further action by this court,” the judges wrote.

The initial lawsuit alleged that President Biden did not have the authority to issue such a sweeping public health mandate, arguing that it would cause severe economic fallout, according to The Hill.

“Its unlawful mandate will cause injuries and hardship to working families, inflict economic disruption and staffing shortages on the States and private employers, and impose even greater strains on struggling labor markets and supply chains,” a filing from a coalition of attorneys general led by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt alleged.

BTW, all you Biden voters, just remember he stated, numerous times, that he would not impose a vaccine mandate, and that Democrats, including Kamala and Brandon, said they would not take “Trump’s vaccine” and trashed the vaccines.

Read: Federal Court Temporarily Halts Biden’s Vaccine Mandate »