Tonight, The Supremes (Over A Gorsuch Dissent) Allow The New York State Vaccine Standard To Take Full Effect...

Forgive me if the below sounds arrogant, but I had a discussion (on another of my sites) this afternoon, with a long time commenter, there. He was taking me (gently) to task for not providing equal prominence to the 104 page Fifth Circuit opinon in the OSHA vacccine standard case, from back in November. I told him (back then) that it would not be the last word (or even relevant, pretty soon).

And that is EXACTLY how it is playing out. I now see five, and perhaps six votes, at least -- for vaccine mandates.

Here was my defense of that decision -- now bolstered by this SCOTUS ruling this evening.

So. . . I think part of the benefit of having been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to go to law school, finish near the top of my class, and have now practiced for well-over a quarter century. . . is that I do know what the law actually is.

And I tend to avoid putting up documents that affirmatively misstate the applicable law. . . as did the Fifth Circuit panel. It is more a political manifesto, than any opinion tethered to actual OSHA decisions, of the past half century, or so. [And I said so, linking it right here. But not on the other site -- as its focus is crime, in the life sciences.]

So. . . even though the Sixth Circuit is also pretty conservative — it seems plain that the Fifth Circuit panel shirked its duty to apply the law. That’s my opinion.

And as to USDC Judge Baker’s opinion in Georgia: he is a trial court judge. The Sixth Circuit is an appellate court. The whole game will be decided as “above his pay grade”. [Whatever happens, his opinion (and the Kentucky one) will not dictate the overall outcome, here.]

They may be safely ignored, as the Sixth Circuit will likely rule by January 2022. And even that may go to the Supremes.

Now as to anything about the science of vaccines, you’re not going to convince me that the harm of refusing / avoiding them is less than the harm of getting them — even with very liberal assumptions about off-target effect-rates.

We now have 800,000 dead in the USA. There is a strong argument that had the GOP operatives not hampered the roll-out (and in red states -- to this day, continued knee-capping), we would / could well-be under 300,000. As it is, this all may reach Spanish Flu of 1918 numbers of dead -- before we are done. And that is deplorable, given that we didn’t then have a vaccine and now we. . . do.

UPDATE: Over a largely ahistorical, and non-law based dissent, the Supremes just let NY’s Vax mandate take effect. That’s the writing on the wall, here. To give you some kindling for your fire, though — I will link the Gorsuch dissent, of tonight here. [At least some lower courts may use it to try and stop the inevitable -- but it makes clear that his is the minority view.]

Yep, there you have it: again, it seems there are at least five and perhaps six votes, for vaccine mandates, at the SCOTUS. Stay tuned.

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