The Supreme Court will hear two sets of cases Friday morning, both of which challenge the Biden Administration’s plans to require millions of Americans to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The cases amount to a test of how the justices view the federal government’s power to create policy in uncertain times.
The high court, which had been slated to return from break on Jan. 10, scheduled oral arguments for this week in response to emergency applications on two policies. The first is the government’s vaccine-or-testing requirement for large employers. The second is a federal vaccine mandate that applies to health care workers at facilities that receive federal money.
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This is the third time this term the Court has moved cases off the so-called “shadow docket,” where the justices typically rule through a short order and without a full briefing. The Court has been criticized in recent years for deciding high profile cases in this manner. The Court said Dec. 22 it would fast-track these cases and give them an expedited oral argument hearing.
The Court has a mixed record on cases related to the pandemic. It has allowed states to impose vaccine mandates, but also supported some religious objections to pandemic restrictions. These cases are different—and have much higher stakes. They focus on whether Congress has authorized federal agencies to create vaccination rules. The challengers contend that the executive branch has overstepped its authority. When the Court last year examined another Biden administration attempt to respond to the pandemic—that time through a moratorium on evictions—the justices rejected the program, saying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not have the power to implement it.
“It’s not just about COVID. It’s not even just about public health. It’s about basic ideas of how government is going to be allowed to operate,” says Lindsay Wiley, a health law professor at UCLA School of Law. “What’s at stake…
Source : time
