Skip to content
Main Menu
Utah Attorney General
Search
Attorney General
Sean D. Reyes
Utah Office of the Attorney General
Secondary Navigation

Mixed Ruling by SCOTUS in Vaccine Mandate Cases

SALT LAKE CITY – Today, Utah Attorney General Sean D. Reyes had a mixed reaction to the United States Supreme Court rulings on federal vaccine mandates for large businesses and healthcare workers.

In its decisions, the justices ruled to uphold the stay (hold) on the OSHA mandate, affecting businesses with more than 100 employees, but rejected the stay in the Centers for Medicare Services (CMS) case involving healthcare workers. The ruling means that employers will be prevented from having to force employees to be vaccinated, while healthcare workers will face a new deadline to comply with the mandate.

Attorney General Reyes issued the following statement upon learning of the Court’s findings:

“The Supreme Court’s rejection of the OSHA mandate is a true victory for all Americans who believe in the rule of law,” said Attorney General Reyes. “There is no workaround when it comes to the Constitution—the federal government cannot dictate its policies where it lacks statutory authority. These liberties are not negotiable.”

Reyes continued: “We are extremely disappointed, however, in the Court’s decision involving healthcare workers. As the four dissenting justices correctly note, a ‘hodgepodge’ of statutes does not authorize the Secretary to force healthcare workers to undergo a medical procedure. And we share the dissenting justices’ concern that this decision will have a lasting negative impact on future agency decisionmaking.”

“I want to thank all of our sister states who joined us in this fight. Due to the hard work of AG Offices around the country, business owners and millions of their employees, for now, are protected from unprecedented executive overreach. We sympathize with medical workers who deserve to also be protected but will not be after today.”

Read the OSHA ruling here.

Read the CMS ruling here.

###