Last week, the Pelican Institute and Liberty Justice Center filed an  Emergency Application for Writ of Stay with the U. S. Supreme Court in our OSHA vaccine mandate challenge. We are asking the Supreme Court to reinstate the stay the U. S. Fifth Circuit issued while the courts consider the merits of the OSHA vaccine mandate. The Court issued a December 30th deadline for the government’s response to our emergency application and announced that it would hear oral arguments on January 7th, 2022.

How did we get to this point? You may recall that our client, Brandon Trosclair, was the first to challenge the OSHA vaccine mandate in early November in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Challenges of this type bypass the district court and go straight to the appellate court. Shortly thereafter, a panel of judges from the Fifth Circuit stayed the vaccine mandate and prevented it from taking effect. The judges noted that there were “grave statutory and constitutional issues” with the mandate. In mid-November, all challenges to the OSHA vaccine mandate filed in Circuit Courts around the country were transferred to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Sixth Circuit was selected in a drawing to hear all challenges to the mandate.

OSHA asked the Sixth Circuit to lift the stay the Fifth Circuit had granted and allow the vaccine mandate to take effect while the courts considered the merits of the case. On December 17th, a panel of Sixth Circuit judges voted 2-1 to lift the stay. Hours later, we filed our emergency application for writ of stay with the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court announced on December 22nd that it selected two of the OSHA vaccine mandate challenges for oral argument on January 7th, 2022. You can listen in here.