In a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has held OSHA's mandatory vaccination order for employers with 100 or more employees to be unconstitutional. The court let stand (on a 5-4 split), the vaccine mandate for hospitals receiving federal funds.
By my reckoning, this is good news for a constitutional, limited powers view of federal authority, regardless of your opinion about the efficacy of vaccine mandates. Let us also be clear that this decision does NOT affect the ability of employers to decide for themselves whether to mandate vaccines in their workplaces. Moreover, states may still impose vaccine mandates if they choose to do so under their own legislative and constitutional structures. Here is a list of what the various states have done so far. To date, no state has imposed a general vaccine mandate, although more than a dozen states have banned vaccine mandates in some form.
In Texas, current law states:
There is no requirement or ban in place in this state, but on Oct. 11, Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order banning all entities, including private businesses, from compelling receipt of a COVID-19 vaccine by any individual, including an employee or a consumer, who objects to such vaccination for any reason of personal conscience, based on a religious belief, or for medical reasons, including prior recovery from COVID-19. Violators may be subject to a $1000 fine.
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