United States: the Supreme Court blocks the vaccination obligation in companies, yet another setback for Biden

While Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema torpedoed her electoral reform yesterday, the American president suffered a second setback the same day. The 46th President of the United States saw, this Thursday, the Supreme Court block the decision to impose the vaccine against Covid-19 in companies with more than 100 employees. The high jurisdiction, on the other hand, validated the obligation of vaccination for the employees of the structures of health which profit from federal funds.

After months of trying to convince the reluctant, Joe Biden announced in September that he wanted to make vaccination compulsory for several categories of employees, in particular those of large companies, the medical sector or federal civil servants. This decision was immediately denounced as an abuse of power by elected Republicans and by part of the economic world.

The Supreme Court agreed with them, at least with regard to the 84 million people employed in companies with more than 100 employees. The administration has “ordered to be vaccinated against Covid or to be tested weekly, at their own expense. This is not the daily exercise of federal power, but an intrusion into the lives and health of a large number of employees”, she wrote in her judgment.

The decision was taken with a majority of six out of nine judges, all conservatives, the three progressive judges having expressed their opposition.

“Freedom has won!”, former Republican Vice President Mike Pence tweeted shortly after the decision, illustrating a widely held view on the right that it is up to individuals to choose their means of protection on both mask wearing and vaccine . “We are proud that the Supreme Court resisted”, added former President Donald Trump. Some professional associations have also welcomed a “huge victory” while reaching out to the Democratic government.

Joe Biden had made the fight against the pandemic one of his priorities during his mandate, while the Omicron variant is sweeping the world. The United States, where only 62% of the population is fully vaccinated due to very marked political divisions on the issue, has so far recorded more than 845,000 deaths from Covid-19.

In a press release, published after the Supreme Court’s decision, Joe Biden accuses the blow. “I am disappointed that the Supreme Court has chosen to block a common-sense, potentially life-saving motion,” he writes.