Vaccination has become a polarizing political issue in the United States
Washington:
The US Supreme Court appeared divided on Friday over President Joe Biden’s Covid testing or vaccination mandate for businesses with strongly pro-liberal judges and presenting conservatives. expressed skepticism.
But a majority of the nine judges appeared to support the administration’s request that healthcare workers at federally funded facilities be vaccinated.
After months of publicly calling for Americans to get vaccinated against Covid-19, the vaccine that has killed more than 830,000 people in the United States, in September Biden announced that he was required to get the vaccine at home. companies employing 100 or more workers.
Unvaccinated employees will have to present negative tests weekly and wear masks at work.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a federal agency, until February 9, businesses must comply with the rules or face potential fines.
Vaccination has become a polarizing political issue in the United States, where 62% of the population is vaccinated.
A coalition of 26 business associations that filed a lawsuit against OSHA regulations, and the conservative-dominated Supreme Court agreed to hold an emergency hearing and also hear arguments about its mandate. Vaccination for health care workers, which is being opposed by Republican lawmakers.
The three liberal justices on the court seem to strongly support the mandate of both.
“Why isn’t this necessary to reduce the serious risk?” Justice Elena Kagan asked lawyers representing business associations opposed to the policy.
“This is a pandemic where almost a million people have died,” Kagan said. “This is by far the biggest public health hazard this country has faced in the last century.
“And this is the policy to prevent all of this.”
Scott Keller, a former Texas attorney general who represents business groups, said the rule requiring a Covid vaccine at companies employing 100 or more people would put many workers off.
“An economy-wide mandate would cause long-term worker displacement, disrupting our national economy,” Keller said.
Ohio’s attorney general, Benjamin Flowers, also argued against the OSHA rule, saying it was “not really intended to regulate workplace hazards.”
Checking in remotely by phone after testing positive for Covid, Flowers said Covid was “a risk we all face – when we wake up, when we’re with family, when we stop for coffee on the road. go to work.”
Chief Justice John Roberts acknowledged there was a “urgent urgency to address the issue” of the pandemic but joined other conservative judges in questioning whether federal agencies should respond to the authorizations. .
“This is something the federal government hasn’t done before, right, mandating vaccine coverage?” he asks.
“Traditionally, states have been responsible for overseeing vaccination mandates,” said Justice Neil Gorsuch, also a conservative.
‘Not something new’
Justice Stephen Breyer, a libertarian, reacted to Keller’s claims that many people could quit their jobs if forced to get vaccinated.
“Some people might quit, maybe three percent,” he said.
“But more people may quit their jobs when they find out they have to work alongside other people who have not been immunized because it means they could get the disease,” Breyer said.
Republican lawmakers and business owners have argued that the mandatory Covid shooting is an invasion of individual rights and an abuse of government power.
However, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, arguing for the Biden administration, said the vaccination mandate “is not something new.”
“Most of us are subject to mandatory vaccination requirements at various points,” says Prelogar.
Louisiana Attorney General Elizabeth Murrill, arguing against the provision of vaccinations for health care workers, called it an “unprecedented bureaucratic power move.”
Murrill, who also testified remotely, said paramedics would be forced to undergo “an invasive, irreversible, forced medical treatment, a Covid shot.”
Conservative judges on the court appear receptive to government arguments in favor of requiring vaccination of healthcare workers.
The Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling shortly, possibly within days.
Businesses with 100 or more employees represent about two-thirds of the private-sector workforce in the United States, or about 80 million people.
The healthcare worker’s duties will apply to about 10 million people.
The Supreme Court has six conservative and three liberal justices, and they’ve all been vaccinated and re-vaccinated.
If the court blocks the vaccination mandates, it would be a blow to Biden, who has made the pandemic control one of his priorities but is battling a surge in cases from the variant. Omicron.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and was automatically generated from the feed provided.)
