The Vaccination Order, Executive Overreach and Legislative Abdication

The Fifth Circuit has correctly noted that President Biden’s executive order invoking the Occupational Safety and Health Act to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations for large employers raises “grave constitutional and statutory issues.” Biden’s application of the Act’s provision for “emergency temporary standards”–which pertains to exposure to “substances or agents that are deemed to be toxic or physically harmful or from new hazards”–to COVID-19 is a stretch. The Act’s references to substances generally refer to toxic chemicals, while its uses of “agents” almost always deal with “physical agents” such as excessive noise. “Hazards,” meanwhile, are workplace dangers like equipment that could injure … Continue reading The Vaccination Order, Executive Overreach and Legislative Abdication

Legal Authority and the Eviction Moratorium

The Washington Post reports that progressive Democrats have “erupt[ed] in fury” at the Biden Administration because the Centers for Disease Control did not renew its moratorium on evictions. The Administration’s critics may be right on the policy, but they are wrong on the law. The difference matters. The CDC imposed the moratorium as a public health measure, worrying that a wave of evictions resulting from the economic devastation of the early pandemic would trigger community spread of the coronavirus. The Supreme Court has indicated the executive branch has no further authority. The CDC has no free-ranging economic power, nor should … Continue reading Legal Authority and the Eviction Moratorium