The U.S. Supreme Court has set aside court decisions from the Fifth, Sixth, and D.C. Circuits challenging vaccine requirements for federal employees. The high Court agreed with the Biden administration that the issue was now moot, as President Biden had already rescinded the executive order mandating COVID-19 vaccines for federal employees. The administration rescinded the executive order in May 2023 due to the massive decline in COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths, due in large part to vaccinations. Appellate courts had issued contradictory rulings about whether federal employees could challenge the constitutionality of the orders in court or whether they first had to do so through the Merit Systems Protection Board. The cases are Payne v. Biden, Biden v. Feds for Medical Freedom, and Kendall v. Doster.
The Supreme Court vacated the lower court rulings using the so-called Munsingwear doctrine. This doctrine allows the Court to vacate adverse rulings that the losing party can no longer challenge. The Court often uses this doctrine when a new administration will likely change a federal policy in a case.
The dismissal of these cases leaves open the question of whether future administrations could require vaccines of federal employees via executive order.
Likewise, the Biden administration rescinded the vaccine mandate for U.S. military members in January 2023 as part of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act. The rescission occurred before the Supreme Court could weigh in on the challenge to the military vaccine mandate brought by a member of the U.S. Navy.
Previous Vaccine Mandate Rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court
In previous rulings related to COVID-19 vaccine mandates, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked a U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) vaccine rule in 2022. The rule would have imposed a vaccine-or-testing rule for larger employers. OSHA ultimately withdrew the rule.
However, the Supreme Court did allow the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to require COVID-19 vaccines for healthcare workers in some situations. CMS could mandate that workers at Medicare and Medicaid-certified providers and suppliers be vaccinated.
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