A federal appeals court ruled Friday that all cases challenging the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s vaccination-and-testing mandate are now moot because OSHA withdrew on Jan. 26 the emergency temporary standard it originally announced in November.
The decision follows a request made by OSHA Jan. 25 for the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss the petitions challenging its COVID-19 vaccination-and-testing emergency temporary standard, because the withdrawal makes them moot.
The standard applied to businesses with 100 or more employees, including long-term care providers.
After the Supreme Court majority blocked the rule last month, attorneys general from more than half of the states urged OSHA to withdraw it. A majority of the High Court justices opined that the challengers were likely to succeed on the merits of their claim that the secretary of labor lacked the authority to impose the OSHA mandate. According to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals’ records, litigation still was pending even after OSHA nixed the mandate, but the cases are now moot.
“Because the ETS’s requirements are no longer in effect as a result of OSHA’s withdrawal, the challenged requirements from which petitioners seek relief are no longer in effect,” the 6th Circuit ruled Friday. The decision, however, likely is not the end of the OSHA vaccination-and-testing mandate controversy.
“Although OSHA is withdrawing the vaccination and testing ETS as an enforceable emergency temporary standard, the agency is not withdrawing the ETS as a proposed rule,” the agency stated as it withdrew the mandate in late January. The agency also made clear that it “strongly encourages vaccination of workers against the continuing dangers posed by COVID-19 in the workplace.”
OSHA has received more than 121,000 comments about the standard as a proposed rule and will review them, JD Supra reported. The agency has given no indication of when a final rule will be released. Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, publication should happen “no later than six months after publication of the emergency standard,” placing it at May 1.
