Biden ‘is not above the law,’ says SC’s AG after COVID vaccine mandate put on hold
A federal appeals court Saturday temporarily blocked the Biden administration’s COVID-19 worker protection mandates for large companies requiring workers be vaccinated or tested weekly, after South Carolina and other states petitioned for their halt.
Since the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Louisiana granted the stay, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, can not enforce its Emergency Temporary Standard that became effective on Nov. 5.
The now-blocked standard requires companies with at least 100 workers to mandate that unvaccinated employees wear masks indoors by Dec. 5 and obtain vaccinations or face weekly tests by Jan. 4.
The intention of the mandate was to protect workers from contracting COVID-19 by strongly encouraging vaccination, and it listed the death toll of the pandemic: “COVID-19 has killed over 725,000 people in the United States in less than two years, and infected millions more.”
The pandemic continues to affect workers and workplaces, the mandate said.
But objections to the requirements for large businesses had raised “grave statutory and constitutional issues,” the panel of judges decided.
“The President is not above the law,” said S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson, noting South Carolina’s role in filing the petition for the emergency order, along with a large group of other states and companies. “The Constitution will prevail.”
The emergency order the panel issued is not a final decision and could later be overturned.
On Thursday, Gov. Henry McMaster issued an executive order banning Cabinet agencies from enforcing the COVID-19 mandate.
The order also requires that all state agencies report to him if the federal government inquires about the vaccination status of employees.
“There should be no mandates. People have ample access to the vaccine,” McMaster said. “People have reasons to take the vaccine, and reasons not to. Federal mandates on such a thing have never been done in our history.”
This story was originally published November 7, 2021 at 12:08 PM.
