On Thursday, Dec. 30, 2021, America’s Future joined 11 organizations in an Amicus Brief filing with the Supreme Court of the United States supporting the Emergency Applications for Stay of Administrative Action along with the Petition for Writ of Certiorari in connection with and against the Occupational Safety and health Administration’s (OSHA) regulation published in its Interim Final Rule (IFR) dated November 5, 2021, entitled “COVID–19 Vaccination and Testing; Emergency Temporary Standard.” <86 Fed. Reg.61402>.
This IFR consisted of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate launched against private businesses, nationwide, with 100 or more employees. Page 3 of the brief, noted “The OSHA Vaccine Mandate is exactly what the Framers most feared when they established the federal government: a raw exercise of arbitrary power. In issuing this Mandate…OSHA exercised powers that it does not have…Accepting any drug into one’s body is a personal decision.”
On January 7, 2022, the SCOTUS held oral arguments pertaining to OSHA’s potential mandate along with another separate but similar case whereby the issue centered around whether the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) could require healthcare facilities who seek reimbursement from Medicare or a State Medicaid agency to compel its workers to be vaccinated.
With respect to the OSHA matter, on January 13, 2022, SCOTUS struck down OSHA’s IRF, thereby ensuring no private business would be penalized in the event an employee was not fully vaccinated. To read this SCOTUS opinion, please click here. With respect to the CMS matter, SCOTUS upheld the CMS’s mandate primarily because powers the federal government and its agencies to regulate businesses, including healthcare facilities, that accept federal funding are expansive in scope and the SCOTUS determined the CMS mandate constituted proper exercise of those powers. This SCOTUS opinion is accessible by clicking here.
Return to the Law & Policy page
More Amicus Briefs
Quick Links
