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Figured this one needs its own thread because it is complicated. I'll keep it as brief as possible and am borrowing some info from the discussions about the challenges to the 2020 election.
The Resident came out with a mandate saying all workers in any company with 100 or more employees must be fully vaccinated or submit to weekly covid testing. Neither a president nor a resident has the power to execute such a mandate because each state retains substantial rights for governing their populations. The USA is a republic and not a democracy. The powers of the three branches of the federal government (legislative, judicial, executive) are outlined in the constitution and the subsequent amendments. This is one place where arguments may take place.
The Resident is attempting an end-run around this question by directing OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) to draw up and implement emergency rules about the vaccine. This office was signed into law in 1970 and charged with setting and enforcing safety and health standards for most of the workers of this country. Expect challenges about the difference between conditions of working environments (machines, etc.) and a virus.
Now we need to look at the judicial process. To challenge a federal order, people, companies, organizations, or states must work their way through the judicial court system. In this case, this process will be the federal courts in the yellow boxes, and given the entities involved, the appeal was filed in the Fifth Circuit.
The Liberty Justice Center is representing several of the petitioners that include Trosclair (supermarket company in Louisiana and Mississippi) and CaptiveAire (a commercial ventilation company with employees in Texas). Here is a summary of the challenge.
The Liberty Justice Center is challenging the mandate on grounds that it exceeds OSHA’s statutory authority under the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
libertyjusticecenter.org
So - probably more than you wanted to know, but in case you were confused about the process, I hope this helps.
The Resident came out with a mandate saying all workers in any company with 100 or more employees must be fully vaccinated or submit to weekly covid testing. Neither a president nor a resident has the power to execute such a mandate because each state retains substantial rights for governing their populations. The USA is a republic and not a democracy. The powers of the three branches of the federal government (legislative, judicial, executive) are outlined in the constitution and the subsequent amendments. This is one place where arguments may take place.
The Resident is attempting an end-run around this question by directing OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) to draw up and implement emergency rules about the vaccine. This office was signed into law in 1970 and charged with setting and enforcing safety and health standards for most of the workers of this country. Expect challenges about the difference between conditions of working environments (machines, etc.) and a virus.
Now we need to look at the judicial process. To challenge a federal order, people, companies, organizations, or states must work their way through the judicial court system. In this case, this process will be the federal courts in the yellow boxes, and given the entities involved, the appeal was filed in the Fifth Circuit.
There are several other states that have filed similar challenges in their district courts. If all states that indicated opposition filed, I think it will cover 8 of the 11 district courts. If I were working on this, I would have gotten together with the the other attorneys general and developed a strategy based on knowledge of the courts and the Supreme Court Justices associated with these courts. For example, South Dakota and Missouri are in the 8th District and Florida, the 11th.
Supreme Court justices are assigned to the appellate circuit courts, and their role is to oversee the appeals process, and when petitioned, to rule directly. Justices, Alito (3rd and 5th), Kavanaugh (6th and 8th), Barrett (7th), Gorsuch (10th), and Thomas (11th) have judicial records that lean more to the constitution, rather than making new interpretations of the laws. However, some of the recent rulings have us confused.
One of the main issues that came up in the 2020 vote challenge was standing, which means does this issue touch you directly. (While voter fraud affected the country as a whole, what went on in Arizona did not affect Texas directly.) I am interested in the parties that are participating in the appeal filed by Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi (5th Circuit). It is a variety of businesses and churches, as well as states. Here is the whole list.
BST Holdings, L.L.C.; RV Trosclair, L.L.C.; Trosclair Airline, L.L.C.;Trosclair Almonaster, L.L.C.; Trosclair and Sons, L.L.C.; Trosclair ; Trosclair, Incorporated; Trosclair Carrollton, L.L.C.; Trosclair Claiborne, L.L.C.;Trosclair Donaldsonville, L.L.C.; Trosclair Houma, L.L.C.; Trosclair Judge Perez, L.L.C.; Trosclair Lake Forest, L.L.C.; Trosclair Morrison, L.L.C.; Trosclair Paris, L.L.C.; Trosclair Terry, L.L.C.; Trosclair Williams, L.L.C.; Ryan Dailey; Jasand Gamble; Christopher L. Jones; David John Loschen; Samuel Albert Reyna; Kip Stovall; Answers in Genesis, Incorporated; American Family Association, Incorporated; Burnett Specialists; Choice Staffing, L.L.C.; Staff Force, Incorporated; Leadingedge Personnel, Limited; State of Texas; HT Staffing, Limited; doing business as HT Group; The State of Louisiana; Cox Operating, L.L.C.; Dis-Tran Steel, L.L.C.; Dis-Tran Packaged Substations, L.L.C.; Beta Engineering, L.L.C. Optimal Field Services, L.L.C.; The State of Mississippi; Gulf Coast Restaurant Group, Incorporated; The State of South Carolina; The State of Utah; Word of God Fellowship, Incorporated, doing busines as Daystar Television Network.
The Liberty Justice Center is representing several of the petitioners that include Trosclair (supermarket company in Louisiana and Mississippi) and CaptiveAire (a commercial ventilation company with employees in Texas). Here is a summary of the challenge.
The Liberty Justice Center is challenging the mandate on grounds that it exceeds OSHA’s statutory authority under the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
- First, OSHA’s authority is limited to workplace-related hazards, but the risk of COVID-19 infection is a society-wide danger.
- Second, OSHA cannot show that COVID-19 is a grave danger for all employers with 100 or more employees because only a few months before, it concluded that COVID-19 was only a grave danger to healthcare employers. Additionally, whether COVID is a grave danger in a workplace depends on individual employees’ age and health, not how many co-workers they have.
- Third, because the mandate applies regardless of individual employee’s risk and difference in workplace conditions, it is not narrowly tailored as emergency standards are required to be.
- Finally, OSHA’s statutory authority to protect employees from “new hazards” must be read to exclude COVID in light of the preceding language: “substances or agents determined to be toxic or physically harmful.” Otherwise, the agency could promulgate any regulation that would have the arguable effect of preventing the spread of a communicable disease.
BST Holdings, LLC v. OSHA - Liberty Justice Center
On November 4, 2021, the Liberty Justice Center and the Pelican Institute for Public Policy filed suit in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to stop the Biden Administration from imposing an illegal COVID-19 vaccine mandate on nearly 100 million Americans. In September, President Biden announced...
libertyjusticecenter.org
So - probably more than you wanted to know, but in case you were confused about the process, I hope this helps.
