美国最高法院的多数法官似乎对拜登政府的法律权力持怀疑态度，以实施与美国职业安全和健康管理局的深度和广度实施COVID-19疫苗接种或测试授权，因为他们在1月听到了争论。7从政府的支持者，州和商业反对者到该规则，将于1月10日生效，为拥有100个或更多员工的雇主生效。

The emergency standard, released in November, has been fast-tracked to the high court through numerous challenges and varying decisions in lower courts on its need and statutory foundation that have left the rule in legal limbo.

At the special hearing, several justices appointed by Democratic presidents called the nearly two-year-old pandemic an unprecedented situation that would justify such a standard that affects 80% of employees—an estimated 80 million people working for the large companies.

The government's attorney, U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, admitted in questioning that only one element of the standard—the one that requires masking of unvaccinated employees—takes effect as of Jan. 10, with the administration allowing large employers until Feb. 9 to have testing and vaccination compliance plans in place.

首席大法官约翰·罗伯茨（John Roberts）在回应政府论点时说：“这是联邦政府从未做过的事情。紧急临时标准仅10次，法院仅确认了一项。

政府论点

政府在法官面前的论点的核心是，由于病毒对在各种工作场所的工人身份的致命性如何，因此，共同199大流行需要采取这种广泛行动。只有雇主独自在家工作的雇主，几乎完全在外面工作。例如园丁，少于100名员工将免于该规则。

“OSHA从未实施疫苗接种的previous 10 standards," said Scott Keller, the attorney representing the National Federation of Independent Businesses and other entities, arguing for a stay of the OSHA mandate. "We do not contest that COVID is a grave danger," he said, but noted that the Philadelphia U.S. Appeals Court said that "in wielding what is supposed to be a delicate exercise of extraordinary power, the agency has to consider and explain alternatives."

承包商团体，例如关联的建筑商和承包商，is a party to one lawsuit, have argued that more exemptions should be available for worksites that are mainly outdoors.

法官埃琳娜·卡根（Elena Kagan）在向俄亥俄州副检察长本杰明·弗洛斯（Benjamin Flowers）的一个问题中说，一位代表州和雇主团体的律师由于最近的正面covid-19，他们通过电话提出了争论，“显然，没有其他政策会阻止疾病和死亡，在某种程度上，这将会。”

Who is Targeted? Who is Protected?

Justice Amy Comey Barrett, however, asked businesses' attorney Keller whether the National Federation of Independent Businesses would still challenge the standard if it was targeted to individual industries and not to employers with 100 or more employees.

"Well, I think what this shows is that workplaces are different," he said. "Instead of doing an economy-wide vaccine testing mandate, for all purposes, OSHA needed to at least consider as it identified, there are certain instances ... for workplaces where there's a heightened risk, that that's where a workplace occupational [standard makes sense]."

法官塞缪尔·阿利托（Samuel Alito）询问是否正在施加紧急标准来保护公众或保护未接种的人，并在开幕式上说，副检察长Prelogar回答说，OSHA的标准旨在保护未接种疫苗。

"The standard requires employers to adopt a policy that unvaccinated employees either get vaccinated or mask and test," she said. "Those are commonplace and highly effective measures that OSHA determined are essential to stopping the spread of this dangerous disease at work." adding that opponents "try to portray this standard as unprecedented, but this lies in the heartland of OSHA's regulatory authority."

当阿里托（Alito）询问如果法院遵守任务，即使是出于行政目的，则会造成什么损害

"A really simple question and you have the prerogative to say, 'no, we think horrible consequences are going to ensue if you issue even an administrative stay of a short period of time, and we don't think that you need to have that time to digest this case and decide it,'" Alito asked.

Prelogar回答：“阿里托法官，如果法院认为它需要短暂的行政逗留，那么我不会说，那当然可以进入它。”