Hi, it’s Danny Karon, your Lovable Lawyer here with your inside the beltway shot of legal wellness. I say inside the beltway because today I’m in Washington D.C. at the Department of Labor.
By now, I think everybody’s heard of or read or seen what President Biden had to say about compulsory vaccinations to help stem the Covid-19 tide. He had a six-part plan but there are two points that really have caused some controversy and I’m going to go through them today.
The first is his rule that all federal government employees need to get vaccinated or at least tested. Is that legal? That’s an easy one. Yes. It is because of the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. Code, which is the statutes and laws that give him that authority.
The second issue is the more controversial issue. It states that if you’re a non-federal employee at a company of a hundred workers or more, you have to get vaccinated or tested. Is that legal? Is there authority for him to do that? Well, it’s not in the Constitution or the U.S. Code. He can’t use that same set of rules.
He channeled it through OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which is an agency of the Department of Labor. OSHA is in charge of setting regulations and rules to keep workplaces healthy and safe.
This requirement is, of course, going to be tested in court because it affects as many as 80 million workers and if companies don’t do it, they’re subject to up to $14,000 in fines per violation.
What’s going to happen is anybody’s guess but we’ll see. It will probably, if not certainly, make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, hopefully quickly because we don’t have a lot of time. Then we’ll know once and for all whether that part of his requirement is legal. Stay tuned and we’ll find out together.
That’s today’s vaccination shot of legal wellness. I’ll keep making my videos to keep you safe and well out there. If you want to learn more, please subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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