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WKSU, our public radio partners in Ohio and across the region and NPR are all continuing to work on stories on the latest developments with the coronavirus and COVID-19 so that we can keep you informed.

US Supreme Court sides with Ohio in case arguing against federal COVID vaccine-or-test mandate

 The US Supreme Court, with barricades still surrounding it in April 2020.
Karen Kasler
/
Statehouse News Bureau
The US Supreme Court, with barricades still surrounding it in April 2020.

By a 6-3 vote, the US Supreme Court has blocked President Biden's COVID-19 vaccine-or-test mandate for many employers, but leaves a similar mandate for health care workers in place.

Attorney General Dave Yost said the ruling protects individual rights and freedom.

After the arguments last week Yost said it wasn’t about whether vaccines work or if a mandate is a good idea, but that a mandate must be enacted by Congress, not an agency or the Biden administration.

“Once you give a bureaucrat the vast power to implement these kinds of mandates through the OSHA law, you'll never close that door. And that, my friends, is what this case is actually all about," Yost said.

The mandate would have applied to more than 80 million people working in businesses with more than 100 employees.

It was Ohio Solicitor General Ben Flowers who argued the case – he did so remotely, since he had tested positive for COVID.

Copyright 2022 The Statehouse News Bureau. To see more, visit The Statehouse News Bureau.

Karen is a lifelong Ohioan who has served as news director at WCBE-FM, assignment editor/overnight anchor at WBNS-TV, and afternoon drive anchor/assignment editor in WTAM-AM in Cleveland. In addition to her daily reporting for Ohio’s public radio stations, she’s reported for NPR, the BBC, ABC Radio News and other news outlets. She hosts and produces the Statehouse News Bureau’s weekly TV show “The State of Ohio”, which airs on PBS stations statewide. She’s also a frequent guest on WOSU TV’s “Columbus on the Record”, a regular panelist on “The Sound of Ideas” on ideastream in Cleveland, appeared on the inaugural edition of “Face the State” on WBNS-TV and occasionally reports for “PBS Newshour”. She’s often called to moderate debates, including the Columbus Metropolitan Club’s Issue 3/legal marijuana debate and its pre-primary mayoral debate, and the City Club of Cleveland’s US Senate debate in 2012.