Biden calls on employers to follow vaccine mandate despite Supreme Court ruling

President Biden called on businesses with at least 100 employees to require them all to get vaccinated or tested weekly despite the Supreme Court’s decision on Thursday to block his vaccine-or-test mandate for large companies.

The Supreme Court ruled 6 to 3 against the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) mandate, thus blocking enforcement of the rule that went into effect on Monday.

“The Court has ruled that my administration cannot use the authority granted to it by Congress to require this measure, but that does not stop me from using my voice as President to advocate for employers to do the right thing to protect Americans’ health and economy,” Biden said in a statement.

“As a result of the Court’s decision, it is now up to States and individual employers to determine whether to make their workplaces as safe as possible for employees, and whether their businesses will be safe for consumers during this pandemic by requiring employees to take the simple and effective step of getting vaccinated,” the president added.

The president asked companies to impose the mandate voluntarily in order to “protect Americans’ health and economy.”

“I call on business leaders to immediately join those who have already stepped up – including one third of Fortune 100 companies – and institute vaccination requirements to protect their workers, customers and communities,” Biden continued.

Some large companies are already enforcing strict vaccine mandates on their employees, including Google, JPMorgan Chase & Co,  Kroger, and Apple.

“I am disappointed that the Supreme Court has chosen to block common-sense life-saving requirements for employees at large businesses that were grounded squarely in both science and the law,” he said. “This emergency standard allowed employers to require vaccinations or to permit workers to refuse to be vaccinated, so long as they were tested once a week and wore a mask at work: a very modest burden,” Biden argued.

On Friday, the Supreme Court heard almost four hours of oral arguments about the validity of the mandate. Those who oppose the mandate believe it is unconstitutional. 

While the vaccine mandate for businesses with more than 100 employees was blocked, the Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 to uphold the vaccine mandate for healthcare workers.