In a 6-3 decision along ideological lines, the Supreme Court ruled that the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate on employers with 100 or more employees through OSHA was unconstitutional (although a mixed 5-4 allowed the mandate on healthcare workers to proceed). This ruling ruffled the feathers of those live on CNN Newsroom when the story broke, growing prickly at the fact conservatives are naturally skeptical of federal power.
The first sampling from the majority opinion offered to CNN viewers came from co-host Victor Blackwell reading, “It is not our role to weigh such tradeoffs. In our system of government, that is the responsibility of those chosen by the people through democratic processes.” He immediately wanted to know how the justices came down on either side.
A few moments later, co-host Alisyn Camerota tacitly admitted conservatives weren’t against democracy by saying the ruling was “not surprising” because “as we all would expect, in terms of conservatives thinking that it should be up to elected officials and states.”
Senior legal analyst Elie Honig agreed. “Yeah, Alisyn, in a way, listening to the argument it felt like a throwback to the old days when conservatives were skeptical of federal power and more in favor of states' rights and liberals were more in favor of sort of the regulatory state and agency action,” he said.
Noting what Blackwell read, Honig added: “This really should be up to Congress. The proper role of Congress is to say, okay, executive branch, whether it's OSHA or any other agency, we hereby empower you to take a certain action or a certain type of action.”
But he caught himself and countered by recalling how “OSHA does have the power to issue certain regulations if there is a ‘grave danger’” and that “the liberal justices at this argument said, well, of course, this is a grave danger. This is a once-in-a-century pandemic, but the conservative justices plainly seemed to disagree.”
Justice correspondent Jessica Schneider chimed in to build off of Honig. “And you know, guys, you know, these justices, the conservatives, have been very skeptical of agency power,” she chided.
And she followed up by huffing about the conservative justices previously striking down the CDC’s eviction moratorium:
We saw it just a few months ago when the Biden administration tried to hold on to that eviction moratorium, citing the pandemic, and the emergency conditions of the pandemic. The justices in that case just a few months ago struck that down, saying that the CDC just didn't have the power to issue an eviction moratorium.
So, this is in line with what we've seen from these conservative justices just a few months ago during the pandemic.
As the segment was ended, Blackwell’s parting words on the subject lamented how the ruling was, “Certainly a blow to the strategy from the Biden administration.”
It’s unclear if it was a hopeful note or an argument to the justices to just allow the mandate anyway, but he concluded with: “We should point out that many of the largest companies in this country have already enacted vaccine mandates that cover tens of millions of Americans.”
CNN’s whining about conservative skepticism of federal power was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from IHOP and Applebee’s. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN Newsroom
January 13, 2022
2:38:53 p.m. Eastern(…)
VICTOR BLACKWELL: All right, we're just getting this as we learn more from this decision from the court, “It is not our role to weigh such tradeoffs. In our system of government, that is the responsibility of those chosen by the people through democratic processes.” That from the majority.
Jessica, let me come back to you, and I know this is early on, this is just breaking, but do we know if this decision came down along ideological lines, 6-3 in these -- the first decision on the large company mandate?
JESSICA SCHNEIDER: Yeah, you know, I have to check on the vote count.
BLACKWELL: That's okay.
SCHNEIDER: But we knew it was 5-4 for one of these decisions, so I'm going to have to get back to you because I just came on the air so quickly, didn't get a chance to totally hone in on that. But it does look like, you know, 5-4 in one of these decisions, but I'll get back to you on that, Victor.
BLACKWELL: Understood. Because there was the question of where Chief Justice Roberts would fall on this.
SCHNEIDER: Right.
BLACKWELL: As he often, in these cases, is -- the questions about on which side he will fall.
SCHNEIDER: Yeah, and he was -- Victor, during these arguments, specifically as it pertains to OSHA, that larger mandate for employers with 100 employees or more, he was sort of weighing the arguments on both sides, but where it came down, he seemed much more inclined to block that mandate.
He talked about the fact that this would be something that Congress would have to explicitly tell OSHA that they could do. I mean, he said, wouldn't this just be unprecedented? This is something we've never seen before, that OSHA would implement this sort of mandate.
So, he did express skepticism, then was trying to understand the other side as well.
ALISYN CAMEROTA Yeah, I mean, and Elie, as you point out, not surprising. This is, as you would -- as we all would expect, in terms of conservatives thinking that it should be up to elected officials and states.
ELIE HONIG: Yeah, Alisyn, in a way, listening to the argument it felt like a throwback to the old days when conservatives were skeptical of federal power and more in favor of states' rights and liberals were more in favor of sort of the regulatory state and agency action. And you could hear that in the justices' questioning.
And the quote that Victor just put up on the screen and read, I think, reflects that sort of concern where the Supreme Court, in that quote, is saying, it shouldn't be up to unelected officials at OSHA or other federal agencies. This really should be up to Congress. The proper role of Congress is to say, okay, executive branch, whether it's OSHA or any other agency, we hereby empower you to take a certain action or a certain type of action.
Now, OSHA does have the power to issue certain regulations if there is a, “grave danger,” and the liberal justices at this argument said, well, of course, this is a grave danger. This is a one-in-a-century pandemic, but the conservative justices plainly seemed to disagree.
SCHNEIDER: And you know, guys, you know, these justices, the conservatives, have been very skeptical of agency power.
We saw it just a few months ago when the Biden administration tried to hold on to that eviction moratorium, citing the pandemic, and the emergency conditions of the pandemic. The justices in that case just a few months ago struck that down, saying that the CDC just didn't have the power to issue an eviction moratorium.
So, this is in line with what we've seen from these conservative justices just a few months ago during the pandemic.
BLACKWELL: Yeah. Certainly a blow to the strategy from the Biden administration. We should point out that many of the largest companies in this country have already enacted vaccine mandates that cover tens of millions of Americans.
