Insights

In a relatively quick turnaround, the US Supreme Court issued a pair of per curiam orders on January 13, 2022, blocking the Biden Administration’s “vaccine-or-testing” rule aimed at large employers, while allowing a separate rule mandating vaccination for certain health care workers to continue—for now.  The Court’s first order blocked the Emergency Temporary Standard issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”). The OSHA rule required businesses that have over 100 workers to adopt either a COVID-19 vaccination mandate or have workers submit to weekly tests and wear face coverings.  The OSHA rule, published by the agency on November...

With the deadlines for compliance looming, President Biden’s vaccine mandates suffered a series of setbacks in federal courts last week. On Monday, November 29, 2021, a federal judge in the Eastern District of Missouri blocked the mandate requiring vaccination of healthcare workers. The Attorneys General representing 10 states had previously filed a Complaint challenging the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) interim rule that requires most healthcare workers to have received at least the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by December 6, 2021. U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp granted the states’ request for a preliminary injunction pending a full...