Court allows Biden employer vaccine mandate to take effect

A federal appeals court panel on Friday allowed President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for larger private employers to move ahead.

The 2-1 decision by a panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reverses a decision by a federal judge in a separate court that had paused the mandate nationwide.

The rule from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration was to take effect Jan. 4. With Friday’s ruling, it’s not clear when the requirement may be put in place.

Republican-led states joined with conservative groups, business associations and some individual businesses to push back against the requirement as soon as OSHA published the rules in early November. They argued that OSHA was not authorized to make the emergency rule.

The case was consolidated before the Cincinnati-based 6th circuit, which is dominated by Republican-appointed judges. Of the two ruling in favor of the OSHA mandate, one was appointed by a Democratic president and the other by a Republican. The dissenting judge was appointed by former President Donald Trump.

“Given OSHA’s clear and exercised authority to regulate viruses, OSHA necessarily has the authority to regulate infectious diseases that are not unique to the workplace,” Judge Julia Smith Gibbons wrote in her majority opinion.