CLAY: This is good news. OSHA has announced that they are suspending their enforcement of the Biden vaccine mandate. That happened right as we started the show today. Why is that happening? Because the Fifth Circuit courageously — the circuit court in the United States located down in Louisiana, the Fifth Circuit is — said that Joe Biden had unconstitutionally overreached his authority in using OSHA to put in place a vaccine mandate.
Now, the question that’s going to be out there is, “Will there be, let’s say, the Ninth Circuit — the California, the West Coast court? Could the Ninth Circuit come out and say, ‘Well, no. We think this is enforceable’?” Yes, and you could end up in a situation where you have a circuit split of authority, and those are typically the cases that are most likely to be taken by the Supreme Court.
Now, we’ve been debating this, Buck. Does the Supreme Court have the stones, the willingness to step up in such a highly contentious time, era, and case, and say, “You cannot do this, Joe Biden, using a regulatory agency”? I think the Fifth Circuit laid out a perfect road map of why Joe Biden’s order is unconstitutional. I think they got the law right. Will the Supreme Court back them? Do they have the willingness to step into this story and do it now?
BUCK: I also want everyone to get ready for this. I think we’ve been pretty good at seeing where the left wants to take all of it, where the next steps will be. Even if the Supreme Court were to strike down this OSHA mandate, I can assure you all there will be other efforts at the state level, at the local level, other federal government regulatory efforts to make more people get the shot.
Even if the OSHA rule here doesn’t stand — and OSHA has now backed off of it because of the Fifth Circuit ruling. They will push for federal aviation mandates when it comes to interstate travel on planes. They’ll tell you that Department of Education funding will be tied to the vaccine. They’re gonna keep going at this. So just be prepared for it, even if there’s a victory against the OSHA federal mandate. Now, obviously they’d be a little bit…
Chasten might be too strong a word. It will be a setback for the vax mandate maniacs, but they’ll try to find other ways to come at this. They’ll find another mechanism to try to force you to get the shot, which is why not only the Fifth Circuit court but what states are doing now… Governor Ron DeSantis in Florida has this special session called to —
BUCK: Yes.
CLAY: The Florida house just passed the covid-19 vaccine mandate bill that allows five exemptions — you can pick any one of five — by any business in Florida wishing to require vaccines of employees. It also puts into law, no school districts may have required masking in schools. The senate in Florida has to pass it. But if it is passed, Ron DeSantis will sign it the same day as soon as he can.
BUCK: And I bet there is religious, medical, and probably even conscience exemptions.
CLAY: Five of them. That’s pretty expansive.
BUCK: Right. Expansive. So this is a way to work within the system but to effectively undermine the authoritarianism that people have been engaging in through the system. This is what they’re doing in Florida. I know they’ve looked at something similar in Texas. I need to check and see where that stands right now. I think corporate interests in the state of Texas put a little bit of pressure on Governor Abbott there.
He might have lost his appetite for this, but in Florida… This is the whole point. Red states — you hear me out there, red states? — should he have their state legislatures and governors (where they have Republicans in control) stopping the mandate of businesses for employees or at least create exemptions which is effectively the same thing.
CLAY: Yes.
BUCK: And don’t fall into the, “Oh, but it’s Big Government!” No, it’s not. (chuckles) Big Government is when you have to get a job to keep your job. That’s Big Government.
CLAY: No doubt. And that is the small measure of solace right now is thanks to the Fifth Circuit and those judges who are willing to stand up for the Constitution, the OSHA vaccine mandate does not currently govern and they’re not able to implement it. Now, how long is that going to last and what is the procedural posture of these legal cases going to be? That remains to be seen, and there are a lot of different directions this can still go, but I think the Fifth Circuit setting the precedent that they did is wildly important.
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