Sixth Circuit lifts stay on Biden Administration employee vaccine mandate News
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Sixth Circuit lifts stay on Biden Administration employee vaccine mandate

The Biden Administration scored a victory Friday in its ongoing battle to enforce a nationwide vaccine mandate for businesses when the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals dissolved a stay, allowing the rule to move forward.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) had issued an emergency temporary standard (ETS) on November 5, requiring all businesses with 100 or more employees to require employees to either get vaccinated or undergo regular testing. States and businesses filed petitions for an injunction, which was granted by the Fifth Circuit the next day, and reaffirmed on November 12, temporarily halting the rule. Because a large number of petitions had been filed against the rule in a wide variety of jurisdictions, a lottery was held to determine which circuit would hear the case.

The Sixth Circuit was the venue for the hearing, and a three-judge panel determined to lift the stay that the Fifth Circuit had imposed. The court found that OSHA clearly has statutory authority to regulate infectious diseases in the workplace. It also found that the agency clearly outlined the grave danger that COVID-19 poses to employees in the workplace, relying on “many peer-reviewed scientific studies” to make that determination. The court concluded that

    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.

The ruling was 2-1, with judges Jane Stranch and Julia Gibbons in the majority and Judge Joan Larsen dissenting. The Department of Labor issued a statement saying it was “gratified” that the court lifted the Fifth Circuit’s stay and announced that it would not issue citations for noncompliance with the rule before February 9, as long as employers are “exercising reasonable, good faith efforts to come into compliance with the standard.”

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