JUST IN: Biden Vaccine Mandate BACK in Effect as Trump-Appointed Judge Overruled 2 to 1
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President Joe Biden’s large employer vaccine mandate has been reinstated after a federal appeals court overturned a lower court stay in a 2-1 decision.
On Friday, The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued an order reinstating Biden’s OSHA rule requiring businesses of 100 employees or more to mandate vaccines for their employees or undergo a testing and masking regime.
That mandate had been stayed by a 5th circuit panel consisting of two judges — Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan and Judge Kurt Engelhardt — who were appointed by former President Donald Trump, and one — Judge Edith Jones — who was appointed by Ronald Reagan.
The 6th circuit ruling was made by a 3-judge panel consisting of Judge Jane Stranch (appointed by President Barack Obama), Julia Gibbons (appointed by President George W. Bush), and Joan Larsen (appointed by Trump).
In her 37-page opinion, Judge Stranch wrote that “the costs of delaying implementation of the ETS are comparatively high.”
Fundamentally, the ETS is an important step in curtailing the transmission of a deadly virus that has killed over 800,000 people in the United States, brought our healthcare system to its knees, forced businesses to shut down for months on end, and cost hundreds of thousands of workers their jobs. In a conservative estimate, OSHA finds that the ETS will “save over 6,500 worker lives and prevent over 250,000 hospitalizations” in just six months. 86 Fed. Reg. 61,402, 61,408. A stay would risk compromising these numbers, indisputably a significant injury to the public. The harm to the Government and the public interest outweighs any irreparable injury to the individual Petitioners who may be subject to a vaccination policy, particularly here where Petitioners have not shown a likelihood of success on the merits.
Judge Gibbons concurred, and wrote that “Reasonable minds may disagree on OSHA’s approach to the pandemic, but we do not substitute our judgment for that of OSHA, which has been tasked by Congress with policymaking responsibilities.”
She went on to add that “Our only responsibility is to determine whether OSHA has likely acted within the bounds of its statutory authority and the Constitution. As it likely has done so, I concur.”
Judge Larsen issued an 18-page dissent in which she wrote that “the mandate is aimed directly at protecting the unvaccinated from their own choices. Vaccines are freely available, and unvaccinated people may choose to protect themselves at any time.”
“I would deny OSHA’s motion to dissolve the stay,” she wrote.
The mandate appears to be headed for the Supreme Court.
