The Supreme Court has announced that it will hear oral arguments on both the OSHA ETS vaccine mandate and the CMS vaccine mandate on January 7, 2022.

On December 17, 2021, we shared with you that the Fifth Circuit limited the scope of the injunction related to the CMS Mandate, which meant that 26 states were required to comply with the mandate again. (Click here to read more). On December 18, 2021, we shared with you that the Sixth Circuit reinstated the OSHA vaccine mandate as well. (Click here to read more).

Following the decision by both the Fifth and Sixth Circuit there were almost instantaneous appeals to the United States Supreme Court related to both injunctions. On Wednesday, the Court issued two orders (OSHA ETS order and CMS order) in response to the appeals. The Court has allotted the ETS mandate and the CMS mandate each one hour for oral arguments on January 7, 2022.

This should be the final step in this back-and-forth game. The Court will determine whether an injunction should be granted while we wait for the lower courts to decide the merits of the mandates. While we wait for oral arguments and a decision from the Court, we recommend you continue to work toward compliance, if necessary, as the Supreme Court could uphold both the Fifth and Sixth Circuit’s decisions.