On Saturday, a federal appeals court temporarily suspended the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate. Just days earlier, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration had announced a rule that would require all employers of 100 or more employees to ensure that by Jan. 4, all workers had been vaccinated against the coronavirus or were tested weekly. Within the day, states and employers had filed at least a half-dozen legal challenges to the mandate.
On one side, the Biden administration is trying to reduce the spread of a deadly pandemic in which unvaccinated Americans are 11 times more likely to die from the virus than those who’ve been vaccinated. On the other side, Republicans argue that the mandate was an egregious example of federal overreach.
Here’s what each side is saying.
