UNITED STATES—On Thursday, January 13, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled against vaccine mandates in a 6-3 ruling that would have impacted all businesses with 100 employees or more.
Twenty-seven states petitioned the Supreme Court to issue the stay on the rule regarding vaccine mandates in the workplace.
According to a press release by, the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), “The Supreme Court of the United States granted petitioner’s request stay the Biden Administration’s COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) during the pendency of the 6th Circuit Court.”
“OSHA lacked the statutory authority to implement the ETS.”
“The Act empowers the Secretary to set workplace safety standards, not broad public health measures,” the Supreme Court stated in its ruling.
“The question before us is not how to respond to the pandemic, but who holds the power to do so. The answer is clear. Under the law as it stands today that power rests with the states and Congress, not OSHA. In saying this much we do not impugn the intentions behind the agency’s mandate. Instead, we only discharge our duty to enforce the law’s demands when it comes to the question who may govern the lives of 84 million Americans.”
The requirements set in place by the Biden administration would have forced employees working for companies with a staff of more than 100 employees to get vaccinated for COVID-19 or show weekly negative test results.
BREAKING: The Supreme Court BLOCKS the federal government's COVID-19 vaccine-or-test requirement for large workplaces. The court ALLOWS a vaccine mandate for workers at federally funded health care facilities to take effect nationwide.
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) January 13, 2022
The mandate allowed for all employees to be paid for the time taken to get vaccinated, and sick leave should any recipients sustain side effects. All unvaccinated individuals would be required to wear masks. If passes businesses that failed to comply could face fines up to $14,000.
In a 5-4 vote, the SCOTUS allowed a rule for healthcare workers at healthcare facilities to receive federal dollars to implement the vaccine mandates at their place of business.
