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The Chamber is off to a good start this year. We had a great lunch at Flemings with our City Manager John Gillison and learned about the exciting developments in Rancho Cucamonga. We welcomed a new business, Cindy’s Avon, to our community. Tonight, we have another ribbon cutting at Kana Financial Consulting. Kana provides credit repair services for consumers. On Thursday morning, I will be discussing changes to California’s labor laws at our Business Connection Network breakfast. Understanding changes in labor law is paramount to stay in compliance and avoid costly fines and lawsuits.
Moving forward, our BCN lunches will be the first Thursday of the month, and our BCN breakfasts will be on the third Thursday at Central Park. Please join us for these great networking and educational events. You can check our website for details.
The most significant news affecting businesses is the United States Supreme Court striking down the Federal OSHA vaccine mandate. This rule would have required all employers with 100 or more employees to compel their employees be vaccinated. The Supreme Court ruled that OSHA did not have the authority to make/enforce such a rule. An administrative agency can only act in accordance with the authority given to it by the legislative body that created it. In this case, OSHA must act in the capacity previously defined by Congress. The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, did not believe that Congress ever contemplated such action. In explaining its decision, the Court stated: “But a vaccine mandate is strikingly unlike the workplace regulations that OSHA has typically imposed. A vaccination, after all, cannot be undone at the end of the workday.”
In a related case, the Supreme Court held that the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) can require health care facilities that receive Medicare and Medicaid funding to require their employees be vaccinated. The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, found that Congress had previously empowered HHS to make such a rule. As such, the Supreme Court deferred to the Secretary’s rationale that “a Covid-19 vaccine mandate will substantially reduce the likelihood that healthcare workers will contract the virus and transmit it to their patients.” The Court did not question the Secretary’s reasons for the rule. The Supreme Court concluded that HHS actions to “avoid transmitting a dangerous virus” is within its authority when administering Medicare funds to health care providers.
A key difference between the two rulings is the Supreme Court’s belief that since HHS had a history of making such rules and OSHA did not, then the former could stand whereas the latter could not. Noticeably absent from either ruling is a discussion of whether compulsory vaccines are moral, legal, or effective. As is typical of the Supreme Court, it did not answer questions that it was not asked.
Some cheered the above rulings, and some bemoaned them. Regardless, the next and most important question is what will Congress do? Congress could pass a law empowering OSHA to do so, or it could pass a law rescinding HHS authority and work around either of the above rulings. Alternatively, Congress could bypass either agency all together and pass a vaccine mandate of its own, which presumably the President would sign. Congress will likely do none of the above. It is one thing for the President to direct his appointed Secretary of Labor or HHS to impose a rule on employers to force their employees, but it is strikingly different to impose that rule directly and test our system of governance. Congress appears unwilling to tread into those uncharted waters.
The next legal battle still to be determined is whether state/local governments and private employers can mandate vaccines on their own and to what extent. Those issues are still working their way through the courts. With varying outcomes in different parts of the country, only time will tell what is allowed.
If the Chamber can be of any assistance, please contact me at Chairman@ranchochamber.org.
Sincerely,
Robert A. Hufnagel
President-Chair
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