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Supreme Court stays OSHA vaccine-or-test mandate (NFIB v. OSHA)

In a 6-3 per curiam decision, the Supreme Court stayed the OSHA emergency temporary standard requiring vaccination or weekly testing for ~84 million workers at employers with 100+ employees, holding OSHA is empowered to set workplace safety standards, 'not broad public health measures'; the same day the Court allowed the CMS healthcare-worker mandate 5-4 (Biden v. Missouri). The dissent argued OSHA acted within its core mission against a 'grave danger' in workplaces and that the mandate contained a testing alternative.

Linked sources

NFIB v. OSHA — slip opinion, 595 U.S. ___ (2022)
Tier 1 · report · 6-3 per curiam staying the OSHA vaccine-or-test ETS, Jan. 13, 2022
Biden v. Missouri — slip opinion, 595 U.S. ___ (2022)
Tier 1 · report · 5-4 per curiam allowing the CMS healthcare-worker vaccination rule, Jan. 13, 2022

Related contentions

Public-health policy

Policy history documented; scientific consensus evolved; political dispute remains.

COVID-19 vaccine mandates: justified protection or overreach?

Partially resolved procedurally, unresolved substantively. Courts settled who held legal authority (OSHA stayed, CMS upheld) and Congress ended the military mandate, but no court or official body has adjudicated the underlying disputes over natural-immunity exemptions, transmission benefit post-Delta, or whether the uptake gains justified the coercive costs — interpretation of those trade-offs remains contested.