Lankford Applauds Supreme Court Decision to Stop Biden’s Vaccine Mandate on Private Businesses

WASHINGTON, DC – Senator James Lankford (R-OK) today issued a statement after the Supreme Court issued a decision following an emergency hearing on whether a stay on vaccine mandates impacting private businesses should remain in place:

“This is a big day for every Oklahoman and American who has lived in fear of having to choose between their healthdecisions or keeping their job. Today’s ruling states what every Oklahoman has known for months—President Biden does not have the authority to reach into every private business to say who should be hired and who should be fired. We are the United States of America. We do still believe in individual freedom, and today, the Supreme Court affirmed that constitutional right for every American.”

Lankford, along with 46 of his Republican Senate Colleagues and 136 of Republican members of the House of Representatives filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court  that argues that Congress did not give the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) the authority to impose a vaccine mandate and urges the Supreme Court to stay the mandate. 

Background:

• On December 17, 2021, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit lifted the Fifth Circuit’s stay of the Biden Administration’s vaccine mandate for large employers. The Department of Labor has stated it will begin enforcing the Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) on January 10, 2022. The Department will also give employers acting in good faith until February 9, 2022, before it will begin issuing citations for violations of the mandate’s testing requirements.
• The Court of Appeals for the Fifth, Eighth, and Eleventh Circuits and the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas have all issued stays that apply to 25 states including Oklahoma, for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) vaccine mandates that impacts nearly all health care workers. For the 25 states that are not under this stay, CMS is currently set to enforce the mandate on February 28, 2022. 

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