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