December 23, 2021 |
The U.S. Supreme Court announced late Wednesday that it will hear oral arguments in appeals against two of President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 drug mandates on January 7th. One case involves large employers and the other involves healthcare workers. The court delayed action on emergency requests in both cases that sought an immediate decision.
Wyoming’s lawsuits over the two mandates will be included in the court proceedings. Both are set to go into effect in January.
The workplace mandate is currently in effect nationwide, while lower courts have blocked the healthcare worker mandate in half the 50 states. According to the blog maintained by the U.S. Supreme Court, the justices last week ordered the challenging states to respond by December 30th to the federal government’s request that it be allowed to enforce the mandate on healthcare facilities that receive Medicare and Medicaid funding.
The Biden administration has lost several cases in the lower court where federal judges have ruled that the states have a high probability of proving their claim that the Biden administration does not have the legal authority to impose the mandates.
In ordering the oral arguments, Justice Brett Kavanaugh denied the request of 27 states, including Wyoming, for an emergency request to reinstate the injunction against the mandate on private businesses that a federal appeals court lifted last week.
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