The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a challenge to Joe Biden’s federal COVID-19 jab mandate for healthcare workers.
REPORT: The U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear challenge to Biden's federal COVID-19 jab mandate for healthcare workers.
— DailyNoah.com (@DailyNoahNews) October 3, 2022
The Supreme Court declined to hear a legal challenge to the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for health-care workers at facilities that receive federal funds. https://t.co/ryvHp89086
— National Review (@NRO) October 3, 2022
The case was brought by Missouri and nine other states.
The states argued that the mandate violates federal administrative law and infringed on states’ rights.
Biden imposed a federal COVID-19 jab mandate last November on approximately 10.3 million workers at 76,000 healthcare facilities, such as hospitals and nursing homes.
In January, the Supreme Court ruled against striking down the healthcare worker mandate by a 5-4 vote.
Conservative Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Clarence Thomas dissented earlier this year.
“These cases are not about the efficacy or importance of COVID–19 vaccines. They are only about whether CMS has the statutory authority to force healthcare workers, by coercing their employers, to undergo a medical procedure they do not want and cannot undo. Because the Government has not made a strong showing that Congress gave CMS that broad authority, I would deny the stays pending appeal. I respectfully dissent.” Justice Thomas wrote in his dissenting opinion earlier this year.
In an unsigned opinion, the Supreme Court declined the challenge after the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals bounced the case back to a federal court.
Fox News reported:
On its first day back in session, the Supreme Court declined to hear an argument from Missouri as well as nine other states -- Nebraska, Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming -- opposing the COVID-19 vaccine mandate implemented by President Biden’s administration for workers in all healthcare facilities that receive federal funding, Reuters reported.
Biden implemented the rule in November 2021.
In January, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision to allow Biden’s vaccine mandate to continue as arguments played out in lower courts. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the liberals to form a majority.
In April, the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to a federal judge to proceed to a trial, but Missouri then appealed to the Supreme Court.
The justices turned away the appeal on Monday.
National Review added:
In their lawsuit, the states alleged that the mandate has exacerbated worker shortages in hospitals and is “now devastating small, rural, and community-based healthcare facilities and systems throughout the states.”
In January, the court struck down President Biden’s vaccine requirement for private sector companies with 100 or more employees but it preserved the health-care-worker mandate pending litigation at the lower court level.
At the time, the justices determined that the latter order fell within the authority Congress had vested in the executive branch to regulate the beneficiaries of Medicaid and Medicare funds. Biden’s orders were originally imposed in November 2021.
“One such function – perhaps the most basic, given the department’s core mission – is to ensure that the healthcare providers who care for Medicare and Medicaid patients protect their patients’ health and safety,” the Court wrote in an opinion in January.
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