![Supreme Court blocks Biden's COVID vaccine rule for companies, allows mandate for health care workers](https://cbsnews2.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2022/01/13/b77b6a64-6aee-40d3-87ab-2bedf3716d93/thumbnail/1200x630g8/4fa7890aa39051e575fa0fc6862b7cc6/gettyimages-1237585481.jpg)
Supreme Court blocks Biden's COVID vaccine rule for companies, allows mandate for health care workers
CBSN
Washington — The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the Biden administration's vaccine-or-test rule for businesses with at least 100 workers, but granted a separate request from the Biden administration to allow its vaccine mandate for health care workers to take effect.
In an unsigned opinion on the rule from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which would require workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to weekly tests, the high court said a slew of GOP-led states, businesses and nonprofit organizations that challenged it are "likely to prevail."
"Although Congress has indisputably given OSHA the power to regulate occupational dangers, it has not given that agency the power to regulate public health more broadly," the court said. "Requiring the vaccination of 84 million Americans, selected simply because they work for employers with more than 100 employees, certainly falls in the latter category."
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More employees of the Environmental Protection Agency were informed Wednesday that their jobs appear in doubt. Senior leadership at the EPA held an all-staff meeting to tell individuals that President Trump's executive order, "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing," which was responsible for the closure of the agency's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office, will likely lead to the shuttering of the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights as well.
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In her first hours as attorney general, Pam Bondi issued a broad slate of directives that included a Justice Department review of the prosecutions of President Trump, a reorientation of department work to focus on harsher punishments, actions punishing so-called "sanctuary" cities and an end to diversity initiatives at the department.
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The quick-fire volley of tariffs between the U.S. and China in recent days has heightened global fears of a new trade war between the world's two largest economies. Yet while experts think the battle is likely to escalate, they also say the early skirmishes offer hope for an agreement on trade and other key issues that could head off a larger conflict.