The U.S. Supreme Court has halted the Biden administration’s vaccination-or-testing requirement on large employers. Conservative Justices expressed doubt that there’s legal authority for such a broad mandate.
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers wasn’t surprised by Thursday’s decision. “We have to make sure that businesses aren’t burdened by this. But going forward, people can still get vaccinated, that’s the easy answer to that,” Evers said.
“Wisconsin businesses can breathe a sigh of relief that the Supreme Court has stayed this unlawful and unworkable mandate,” said Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce President & CEO Kurt R. Bauer. “If enacted, employers would face untold financial costs to comply with this ETS and an unprecedented number of workers would walk off the job in the middle of a historic workforce shortage.”
Wisconsin Health Services Secretary-designee Karen Timberlake says DHS continues to partner with businesses, to combat COVID-19.
“We have had many great partnerships with private sector employers, who have been offering on-site vaccination clinics, who are offering on-site testing, who are making it possible for their employees to take time off when they are sick, and need to be out of the workforce,” she said.
The high court did allow a separate policy to stand, which requires vaccinations for most health-care workers at facilities receiving federal Medicaid and Medicare funding.