Supreme Court blocks COVID-19 vaccine mandate for businesses, allows mandate for health workers
“… the high court concluded that ‘healthcare facilities that wish to participate in Medicare and Medicaid have always been obligated to satisfy a host of conditions that address the safe and effective provision of healthcare’ ” - CPost
See also: NR: Why We Saw a Split Decision on the Biden Vaccine Mandates
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Maybe we don’t live in the tyranny that so many Christians profess. Maybe we live in a Democratic Republic where the rule of law is upheld and we have functioning branches of government with checks and balances.
I think we have neither complete tyranny, nor perfectly-working rule of law. If anything, the difference in treatment of the January 6th rioters vs. how the BLM/Antifa rioters are treated right now is enough to convince me there are big issues here.
And of course, the screams from one side about this court decision, and calls for changing the Supreme Court to “preserve democracy” make it clear that we need to work to keep our system functioning. Our government mostly functions now, but that doesn’t mean either that improvements aren’t necessary or that we can give up being vigilant for attempts to remove the checks and balances.
Dave Barnhart
[dgszweda]Maybe we don’t live in the tyranny that so many Christians profess. Maybe we live in a Democratic Republic where the rule of law is upheld and we have functioning branches of government with checks and balances.
I seem to recall “principled” opposition in these threads to authoritarian tendencies of a previous administration. Would you agree that those concerns were unfounded because we still “live in a Democratic Republic where the rule of law is upheld and we have functioning branches of government with checks and balances”?
Or are some authoritarian tendencies more honorable than others? Are we also OK now with the President pressuring news organizations to spin the news a certain direction?
I think Biden’s vaccine mandate parallels Trump’s travel ban. In both cases, I suspect the president knew their order would never make it through the court system but they had to live up to their campaign rhetoric and assure their base that they gave it the “ol’ college try”. In both cases, the courts did their job. But that doesn’t change the fact that the presidents clearly attempted to overreach their lawful power. Even though they failed, the fact they attempted to exceed their authority is still a problem.
What’s sad in this case is that some people have already lost their jobs as a result of the mandate, despite it being struck down as unconstitutional.
Josh Stilwell, associate pastor, Alathea Baptist Church, Des Moines, Iowa.
[KD Merrill]I seem to recall “principled” opposition in these threads to authoritarian tendencies of a previous administration. Would you agree that those concerns were unfounded because we still “live in a Democratic Republic where the rule of law is upheld and we have functioning branches of government with checks and balances”?
Or are some authoritarian tendencies more honorable than others? Are we also OK now with the President pressuring news organizations to spin the news a certain direction?
I have no problem with the principled opposition to any administration. I was more or less commenting on the call out in the evangelical world of our need to resist tyranny. My comment was that we don’t live in a tyranny, and the concern that was expressed was resolved through the normal course of the rule of law. I would say that what Biden pursued was one in which some levels of precedent have been set (OSHA has the right to workplace safety), with a request/order to push the limits through a vaccine mandate. Most people on all sides of the fence thought it was a long shot. Biden didn’t mandate a vaccine, he mandated that OSHA develop a vaccine mandate within their guidelines and legal framework. It was a push of boundaries. Everyone new it. It went through the court system, as it should. It was ruled against, and Biden accepted that ruling. Doesn’t seem that authoritarian, than many, many things that each branch tries to do each year. And it doesn’t seem very tyrannical. Flip this to the election results regarding Trump and you have someone trying to subvert the rule of law, including his own executive branch, resulting in a January 6th riot which sought to overturn the election results through force, up to and including hanging the presidents own vice president on gallows erected on the Capitol lawn. This is the very definition of tyranny.
[Josh S]Even though they failed, the fact they attempted to exceed their authority is still a problem.
What’s sad in this case is that some people have already lost their jobs as a result of the mandate, despite it being struck down as unconstitutional.
To be honest there is no line item in the Constitution for every single scenario for the next 500 years after signing. The Constitution and subsequently sets of laws create an ever evolving framework. That framework is routinely tested or pushed given changing scenarios in the landscape. The beauty of the US, is that the checks and balances are in place to maintain a living Constitution. The fact that a governor chooses to ban abortion is also an attempt to exceed their authority. But we don’t scream about. The attempt isn’t the problem as long as it flows legally.
The fact that it was overturned, doesn’t mean that companies cannot enforce a mandate. That is still legal. No one lost their jobs because of the Biden vaccine mandate, because it never went into affect. OSHA with held it because of the court cases. We did not live one single day in this country with a vaccine mandate that was a requirement. It was scheduled to go into effect on January 10th of this year. The testing requirement was to go into effect on February 9, 2022. There is absolutely nothing in the order that requires companies to fire employees. If they choose not to be vaccinated they needed to be tested. But again that testing requirement was not to go into effect until February 9. 2022.
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