The Supreme Court announced last night that it will hold oral argument Jan. 7 in the challenge to the employer vaccine mandate issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The mandate—now set to come into effect next month—requires employers with 100 or more employees to ensure staff is vaccinated or tested weekly for COVID-19, among other requirements.
Last week, a three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a judicial stay of the vaccine mandate. In response, OSHA stated that it will not issue citations for noncompliance with any aspect of the vaccine mandate before Jan. 10 and will not issue any citations for noncompliance with the mandate’s weekly testing requirements before Feb. 9 “so long as the employer is exercising reasonable, good faith efforts to come into compliance with the standard.”
Late this past Friday, business groups challenging the vaccine mandate filed an application with the Supreme Court for an emergency stay of the mandate. The Jan. 7 court date indicates that the Court is not likely to act on the stay requests until after that date.
