Attorney General Alan Wilson files appeal on OSHA vaccine mandate ruling

December 20, 2021

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson filed with the Supreme Court of the United States early Saturday morning asking it to block the Biden administration’s OSHA vaccine mandate. The filing comes after a panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, in a split 2-1 decision, lifted a stay against the mandate Friday evening. Lifting that stay would allow the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to require people who work at companies with 100 or more employees to get vaccinated.

“The fight against the Biden mandate continues, even to filing for a stay in the early hours of this morning. The rule of law will prevail and the President’s grasp for power halted,” Attorney General Wilson said.

Attorney General Wilson, 26 other states and a long list of companies and organizations filed the appeal just before 1 o’clock Saturday morning, just a few hours after the Sixth Circuit lifted a stay of the mandate that had been in place.

The filing argues, among other things, that, “This case does not present the question whether vaccines or vaccine mandates are wise or desirable. Instead, it presents the narrow questions whether OSHA had authority to issue the Mandate, and whether it lawfully exercised whatever authority it had. After all, ‘our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully,’ even during a pandemic and ‘even in pursuit of desirable ends.’”

There are three Biden administration vaccine mandates being challenged in court:

-This OSHA mandate, which is now in effect after the Sixth Circuit’s lifting of a stay. We’re now appealing to the Supreme Court asking it to reinstate that stay.

-The mandate for healthcare workers. The Fifth Circuit has blocked that mandate in states that have sued to stop the mandate from being enforced. That stay is still in place in the plaintiff states, including South Carolina. The Biden administration has asked the Supreme Court to lift or stay that injunction.

-The federal contractor mandate. A District Court has ordered a temporary injunction to block that mandate nationwide, which is still in effect. The Biden administration may appeal that to the Supreme Court as well. Otherwise, that case will be argued into the new year.

You can read the filing here.