MSNBC host Joy Reid criticized the six conservative Supreme Court justices who voted against President Joe Biden‘s federal mandate issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in November, requiring that businesses with 100 or more employees employ staffs vaccinated against COVID-19 or have weekly tests.
OSHA’s mandate in November would have made exceptions for workers with religious objections and/or those who don’t make close contact with other people as part of their jobs. A federal lawsuit, National Federation of Independent Business v. Department of Labor, quickly made its way up to the highest court in the land.
Reid was discussing Thursday’s decision with Democratic California Rep. Raul Ruiz and attorney/MSNBC contributor Neal Katyal, former principal deputy solicitor general of the United States, on her weekday show, The ReidOut.
“The administration had made an estimate that, it would, that the mandate would result in 22 million people getting vaccinated and prevent 250,000 hospitalizations,” Reid told him, per Mediaite. “The usual six voted the way we would expect them to vote, the six right-wingers. At this point, Neal, have they not just simply stated, by their actions, that they are more in favor of right-wing politics, the kind of DeSantis-style right-wing politics than they are in favor of saving lives? They don’t care if that causes less people to die, clearly.”
Those who voted against the mandate were Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas.
Katyal called it “a really dark day for the court and for the country,” noting that he, earlier Thursday, had unsucessfully argued a case before the high court concerning veterans’ benefits.
Reid told Katyal “it is hard to think of them as anything other than right-wing ideologues.”
“They should all have right-wing talk radio shows,” she added. “They are not justices in the great tradition of Supreme Court justices. They’re just politicians. As far as I’m concerned, I see nothing what they’re doing that I can possibly respect. It’s sad what’s happening to this country.”
Reid had railed against the Supreme Court on Twitter, writing, “So to review: in Right Wing America, per their SCOTUS and various elected officials, you cannot:
-Protect workers, students or any kids at all from COVID
-Teach history that’s not a hagiography of slaveowners,
-Read Toni Morrison at school, or
-Vote, unless Republicans say so.”
She added, in an other tweet, “But you CAN:
-Amass a personal arsenal
-Freely spread a virus, even to the vulnerable
-Ignore congressional subpoenas (if you’re a Republican), and
-Try to violently overturn an election
Am I missing anything?”
According to CNN, while the Supreme Court blocked the vaccine mandate for major businesses, it did allow one for certain health-care workers to go into effect. It would include health-care workers at hospitals, nursing homes and other facilities that participate in Medicare and Medicaid programs.
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