In Barron’s and USA Today, Mark Barnes Examines Whether President Biden’s New Vaccine Mandate Can Withstand Legal Challenges

In The News
September 13, 2021
Attorneys:
Capital Insights.

In Barron’s and USA Today, health care partner Mark Barnes (Boston) examined whether President Biden’s new mandate that firms with 100 or more employees must require coronavirus vaccinations, or weekly Covid-19 testing, can withstand legal challenge.

Mark, a former associate health commissioner of New York, explained that public health power is traditionally reserved to the states under the theory that public health is part of the state police power. He expects the new Covid-19 vaccine policy to be challenged based on arguments it is outside the mandate of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OHSA), and an impermissible stretch of the U.S. Constitution’s interstate commerce clause. A lower court may issue an injunction delaying implementation of the policy.