The U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) withdrew its Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard for employers with over 100 employees Tuesday after the U.S. Supreme Court halted the enforcement of President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for private businesses on Jan. 13.
According to a statement from the U.S. Department of Labor, the withdrawal is effective Jan. 26. However, OSHA is not dropping the mandate as a general proposal.
“Although OSHA is withdrawing the vaccination and testing ETS as an enforceable emergency temporary standard, the agency is not withdrawing the ETS as a proposed rule,” the Labor Department said. “OSHA strongly encourages vaccination of workers against the continuing dangers posed by COVID-19 in the workplace.”
The Twitterverse was filled with the news about the OSHA announcement. The reaction was varied.
One user observed, “They lost in court but they still managed to force millions to get the jab and to cause many others to lose their job, while their mandate was in place. The damage to the country and citizens in the name of ‘precaution’ is despicable and demonic.”
As CBN News reported, the highest court in America ruled 6-3 against Biden’s requirement that employees of large companies get vaccinated or test regularly and wear a mask while at work.
The court made its decision based on constitutional merits. Justice Neil Gorsuch argued the vaccine mandate issue is a matter of who decides policy – the president’s bureaucratic regulatory agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), or elected lawmakers in other branches of the government?
He wrote, “The answer is clear: under the law as it stands today, that power rests with the states and Congress, not OSHA.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told CBN News the court got it right on the employer mandate because it was clearly unconstitutional.
“Even Biden in advance of this was saying it probably wasn’t constitutional, so he did it anyway and which is kind of ridiculous,” said Sen. Paul. “But no, I think this is really the court telling the president that there are limits to his powers.”
“The Supreme Court made it clear that President Biden administration’s attempt to federalize the nation’s workforce is blatantly unconstitutional,” said First Liberty Institute President, CEO, and Chief Counsel Kelly Shackelford. “OSHA had no choice but to withdraw its unlawful ETS, but it needs to completely put an end to this dangerous government overreach. We will continue to fight on behalf of our clients and the American people to protect them from being forced to violate their faith.”
First Liberty Institute, a legal organization that protects religious freedom, represents three prominent national religious ministries – Daystar Television Network, the American Family Association, and Answers in Genesis – in consolidated cases challenging the mandate.
As CBN News has reported, Daystar is an international, faith-based network “dedicated to spreading the Gospel 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” American Family Association is one of the largest pro-family organizations in the country. Answers in Genesis is a world-class, Christ-centered, family attraction, with physical properties—one a full-scale replica of Noah’s Ark—located in northern Kentucky. Each organization has over 100 employees, which had made them subject to the vaccine mandate.
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