Two years into the pandemic, the Supreme Court has finally established that the government has to operate within its defined powers, even in times of national emergency.

The court, in a 6-3 ruling, struck down President Joe Biden’s mandate that all employees of private firms with more than 100 workers be vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus or tested weekly.

Biden issued the order through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The court ruled Congress never gave the agency the power to issue a mandate with such sweeping impact. This is an important statement limiting the power of federal agencies to act on their own to set policy with broad economic consequences. The bureaucracy has increasingly usurped authority of the legislative branch.

In a second mandate case, the court ruled 5-4 that the vaccine requirement on health care providers issued by the Health and Human Services Department can stand. The difference, the majority found, is that Congress did give the HHS secretary the authority to impose conditions on the receipt of Medicaid and Medicare benefits.

The dissenting justices argued the department’s power is limited to carrying out the administrative functions of the two government health insurance programs, and that doesn’t include forcing health care workers to undergo an unwanted medical procedure that “cannot be removed at the end of the shift.”

Chief Justice John Roberts and fellow conservative Brett Kavanaugh joined the liberal bloc in upholding the health care worker mandate.

All six conservative justices voted to overturn the OSHA mandate, which was problematic from the beginning. The requirement was arbitrary in its application, covering employers with 100 workers but not those with 99, without making a case for the distinction.

There also was no precedent for OSHA to impose a personal health mandate on workers. If it could get away with ordering vaccines, why not, for example, a weight-loss program?

Both mandates were issued when the delta variant of COVID-19 was dominant. At that time it was believed vaccines provided near absolute protection against contracting and spreading the virus.

Now, the omicron strain is responsible for most new COVID cases. While its symptoms are much milder, it has proven far more contagious. And it’s being spread by both the vaccinated and unvaccinated alike. That calls into question the effectiveness of vaccines in containing the spread.

But the Supreme Court wasn’t addressing whether vaccine mandates are effective.

— The Detroit News (TNS)