The US Supreme Court has ruled in favor of trucking groups and other businesses that sought to suspend a rule requiring an estimated 82mn workers to be vaccinated against Covid-19 or undergo regular virus testing.
The Supreme Court today voted 6-3 to stay enforcement of that rule, which would have applied to companies with more than 100 employees. Trucking groups, fuel distributors and other businesses said they opposed the rule in part because of concerns that thousands of workers would walk off the job rather than comply.
The ruling deals a blow to President Joe Biden's push to encourage vaccinations against a virus that has killed more than 840,000 in the US, according to federal data. A surge of new infections traced to the Omicron variant has caused an uptick in hospitalizations and another wave of disruptions to supply chains across the US.
The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) used its emergency powers to issue the vaccine-or-test rule for large employees, citing the need to protect workers on the job from the risks of infection. The mandate would avoid an estimated 6,500 deaths and 250,000 hospitalizations over six months, OSHA said.
But the Supreme Court's majority said the agency had overstepped its workplace safety powers and was trying to regulate "hazards of daily life" that were present even if someone was not working. The court left open the possibility that OSHA could issue a narrow rule for "particularly crowded" workplaces. The Supreme Court also separately upheld vaccine mandates for healthcare workers.
The American Trucking Associations was among the trade groups and businesses that asked the Supreme Court to halt the vaccine mandate based on concerns that a large share of workers would quit. OSHA during the litigation said it found workplaces that required vaccination had far fewer people quit than who threatened to leave.
