Live: Supreme Court To Weigh Biden Vaccine Mandate

The Supreme Court on Friday is scheduled to hear at least two hours of arguments beginning at 10 a.m. EST after GOP state officials and business groups filed requests to block President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for employers who have more than 100 workers, as well as a similar requirement for healthcare facilities.

Listen live here.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor has chosen to participate in the arguments from her chambers, and two arguing attorneys, the solicitors general of Ohio and Louisiana, will also participate remotely by telephone, a court spokeswoman said.

The justices spent most of the pandemic working remotely but returned to in-person arguments in October. All nine are fully vaccinated, the court said. The court remains closed to the public due to the pandemic. –Reuters

The plaintiffs have argued that the Biden administration exceeded its authority by imposing requirements that were never authorized by Congress, and that it f ailed to follow the proper administrative rules for issuing emergency regulations. 

Of note – and possible relevance to the argument; in July, Biden explicitly stated that people who take the vaccine will not get COVID-19, a statement we know (and knew at the time) was false.

Under one of the Biden policies, OSHA required that businesses employing more than 100 employees need to require vaccinations or weekly testing – which would apply to more than 80 million workers nationwide.

Taking the lead in trying to block the mandate is the state of Ohio and the National Federation of Independent Business. Meanwhile, several religious groups, including the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, have filed similar cases.

The second policy under consideration by the Supreme Court requires that approximately 10.3 million workers across 76,000 healthcare facilities receive the vaccine.