An Inside Look at the SCOTUS COVID Arguments

January 7, 2022

This morning the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two of President Biden's vaccine mandate cases. The first is imposed on all businesses with over 100 employees and the second is imposed on those working with Medicaid and Medicare. Taken together, many Americans are required to get the vaccine (or test) under these mandates. This is an unprecedented abuse of federal power that will hopefully be stopped by the Supreme Court.

It was very clear during oral arguments that the liberal justices were focused on COVID hysteria (not grounded on facts but rather gross exaggerations) while the conservative justices were focused on the legal issue at hand: do President Biden and his administration have the authority to mandate these vaccines?

Justice Alito had a number of excellent points. First, he pointed out that most OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) regulations affect workers when they are on the job but not when off. The vaccine obviously has an impact on all aspects of a person's life. The Solicitor General for the United States simply responded that the focus is on protection at work without acknowledging that this will have a large impact on a person's life outside of his or her job. Second, Alito said that although the vaccine is safe for many some will suffer adverse consequences. He asked if OSHA has ever imposed any other regulation that has some adverse health consequences. The Solicitor General admitted that they had not. These highlights the extraordinary step OSHA has taken and how it is not remotely justified.

In order to justify OSHA's conduct, Justice Sotomayor came up with some rather troubling "facts." She claimed that over 100,000 children are on ventilators due to COVID. The current national pediatric COVID hospitalizations according to HHS is 3,342 children, with many of those cases being incidental. Justice Breyer said that there were 750 million new cases in the United States, which is truly extraordinary for a country with a population of 329.5 million. Justice Breyer also seemed to indicate that there would be zero cases if everyone were vaccinated -- a fact that is simply not true as the vaccine is not effective at preventing transmission of omicron. The questioning from the liberal justices makes one wonder where they are getting their COVID information and why is it not grounded in facts.

Biden's vaccine mandate is unlawful, and it usurps an individual's free choice of whether or not to receive a newly-discovered vaccine. His testing alternative simply is not viable, as there is a mass shortage of COVID tests right now. Many people will be forced to quit their jobs, furthering our supply chain issues and wreaking more havoc on the country. The mandate is wrong because it removes the dignity of a person to decide what is best for themselves, it forces a decision that should be freely made, it gives the federal government far too much authority, and it will cause further damage on our country. We have high hopes the Supreme Court will see all these reasons and issue a stay on the unlawful vaccine mandate.