Biden Accepts Defeat; Rescinds Private Vaccine Mandate Entirely
It took just over two months for justice to prevail, but prevail it did.
US President Joe Biden’s highly controversial private business vaccine mandate has suffered its final defeat, and will be rescinded by the White House.
The Biden administration is formally withdrawing its vaccine and testing mandate for businesses, after the Supreme Court blocked the requirements earlier this month.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration will pull the rule for businesses effective Wednesday, Jan. 26, the agency said in a statement posted to its website Tuesday. The Supreme Court’s conservative majority, in a 6-3 decision, ruled that OSHA had exceeded its authority.
“Although Congress has indisputably given OSHA the power to regulate occupational dangers, it has not given that agency the power to regulate public health more broadly,” the court wrote in an unsigned opinion.
The move could help clear some court dockets as well.
The Biden administration is ending its legal battle over the mandate — at least for now. OSHA will ask the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit to dismiss all cases related to the mandate, according to a Labor Department spokesperson. The administration had faced dozens lawsuits from Republican-led states, private businesses, religious groups, and national trade associations. The 6th Circuit has jurisdiction over those cases.
This disastrous defeat is just another of the Biden administration’s massive public failures, and certainly won’t bode well for the President’s already-dicey reelection hopes.