The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a legal challenge to the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for healthcare workers at facilities that receive federal funds.
The justices rejected an appeal submitted by the plaintiffs, including ten mostly Republican-controlled states, after a lower court declined to hear their petition. The vast majority of healthcare workers nationwide, 10.4 million, are subject to the mandate, although there are medical and religious exemptions.
In January, the court struck down President Biden’s vaccine requirement for private sector companies with 100 or more employees but it preserved the healthcare worker mandate pending litigation at the lower court level. At the time, the justices determined that the latter order fell within the authority Congress had vested in the executive branch to regulate the beneficiaries of Medicaid and Medicare funds. Biden’s orders were originally imposed in November 2021.
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