Court Reinstates Biden’s Vaccine Mandate

John Bickley and Georgia HoweDecember 21, 2021

It’s Tuesday, December 21st, and this is your Morning Wire. Listen to the full podcast:

1) Court Reinstates Biden’s Vaccine Mandate

The Topline: A federal court of appeals lifted the stay on President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for private employers, which has the potential to impact around 85 million Americans.

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The Courts

On Friday, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals — where The Daily Wire filed its lawsuit and where all the cases from around the country were consolidated — lifted the 5th Circuit’s stay which had blocked enforcement of Biden’s vaccine mandate. The mandate is now allowed to progress as if it will go into effect in January.

The ruling is a setback for those fighting the mandate, but is not a permanent defeat. It was also surprising to some because the 6th Circuit did not show any deference to its sister circuit’s previous order, and the 6th Circuit is known for being more conservative. In this case, however, the judge who drafted the opinion is an Obama appointee.

The order said the courts must defer to OSHA’s ‘scientific analysis’ and ruled that none of the legal or constitutional challenges have merit.

What It Means: Companies will now have to comply with the mandate unless the Supreme Court intervenes. Dozens of parties, including The Daily Wire, have already appealed the decision and/or filed emergency motions for the Supreme Court to stay the mandate.

The appeals go to Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who already set a deadline of 4p.m. on December 30th for the administration to respond. If the court chooses to intervene, that will most likely happen in the first week of the new year.

The Dissent

Apart from casting doubt on OSHA’s power to issue such a sweeping mandate, the dissent focused on whether or not the OSHA mandate is “necessary.”

In order for OSHA to issue an emergency rule like this, it has to show that it is necessary to prevent a grave danger. The order interpreted “necessary” to mean reasonably needful, but the dissent argued that is the standard for a regular OSHA regulation, not one that bypasses ordinary procedure for an emergency, and that “necessary” actually means the mandate has to be indispensable to achieving OSHA’s goal.

The Daily Wire: In a brief to the Supreme Court yesterday, The Daily Wire argued that the data doesn’t support the notion that a vaccine mandate will accomplish the government’s goal of preventing transmissions. The brief also points out to the Court that the mandate’s 100-employee rule is arbitrary and nonsensical.

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2) White House Doubles Down On Pressuring Unvaccinated

The Topline: As COVID cases climb nationwide, the White House is telling unvaccinated Americans to get the shot, or prepare for a ‘winter of death.’

Quote Of The Day: “For [the] unvaccinated, we are looking at a winter of severe illness and death… for themselves, their families and the hospitals they’ll soon overwhelm. But, there’s good news. If you’re vaccinated and have your booster shot, you’re protected from severe illness and death.”

– President Joe Biden

Shift In Messaging

When the vaccine was first being developed, President Biden took a positive approach, touting its effectiveness and incentivizing people to get the shot with free beer, cash prizes, and complimentary childcare.

As time went on and millions of Americans remained unvaccinated, the message started to shift from attempting to convince the unvaccinated, to trying to pressure them.

In September, Biden announced the federal vaccine mandate, as well as the mandate for employers with more than 100 workers. On the day of that announcement, he said “We’ve been patient. But our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us.” This week, he went a step further, saying the unvaccinated faced a winter of death.

COVID

Over the last month, hospitalizations are up 45% and the rolling weekly average on new cases is now over 125,000, though total deaths are still much lower than they were at their peak.

President Biden and Dr. Anthony Fauci have both been sounding the alarm for weeks that America’s hospitals are about to be overwhelmed and that the holiday season will lead to mass transmission of the Omicron variant. However, detractors have said every available study so far suggests that even though Omicron is quite contagious, it’s far more mild than the Delta variant and has yet to kill anyone in America.