Why Biden’s Vaccine Mandate Fails the Constitutional Test; Report: Charter Schools Gained, Public Schools Lost Students During Pandemic, and other C-Virus related stories

Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

Why Biden’s Vaccine Mandate Fails the Constitutional Test:

In the name of an ‘emergency,’ the administration is invoking a 50-year-old statute of doubtful relevance to justify a sweeping and unprecedented mandate over the private sector.

President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate represents a bold, unprecedented use of federal power. Despite its being advanced in the name of public health, and in the midst of a viral pandemic, it should fail because it undermines the Constitution’s balance between Congress and the president and between the federal and state governments. Congress has not vested the president with the power to govern every aspect of every office and factory in the nation, and even if it had, such a grant of sweeping power would violate the very division of authority between the national and state governments.

In fact, the administration implicitly concedes that it does not have the power to order every American to obtain a vaccine against COVID-19. Instead, it has announced that it will issue an emergency order by way of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). OSHA is to issue a rule that private employers with 100 or more employees require their workers to get vaccinated or get tested on a weekly basis, or else lose their jobs. Apparently, small businesses and individuals remain exempt from the Biden vaccine command — a sign of the constitutional problems to come.

OSHA is to promulgate this regulation as an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS), to go into effect immediately on publication, thus bypassing the ordinary rules of administrative procedure. Those rules would have required an extended period of public notice and comment. Employers who do not comply with the ETS face enforcement actions by OSHA, including fines of up to $13,653 for each “serious” violation. The administration estimates that this action will result in the vaccination of about 80 million private-sector employees.

Biden’s order recalls his recent, ill-fated decision to permit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to extend its moratorium on tenant evictions beyond the deadline authorized by Congress. That move flew in the face of an earlier Supreme Court decision clearly indicating that such an extension would be impermissible without congressional approval. When Congress did not act, the Biden administration determined to treat the Supreme Court precedent as a mere bump in the road and extended the moratorium anyway. The Court swiftly struck down the renewed extension on August 26 in Alabama Association of Realtors v. Department of Health and Human Services.

Although the CDC and OSHA cases are significantly different, both raise the question of the authority delegated to the administrative agencies by Congress. In substance, reviewing courts will ask whether Biden can order a measure of this magnitude and impact without seeking specific congressional approval. And their review will be guided by the Supreme Court’s recent statement in the CDC case that “we expect Congress to speak clearly when authorizing an agency to exercise powers of ‘vast economic and political significance.’” If the eviction-moratorium case is any guide, the Supreme Court will look suspiciously on any Biden effort to rig up an unrelated law into a mandate to regulate public health nationwide — even in the midst of a dangerous pandemic. --->READ MORE HERE

Daniel William McKnight

Charter schools gained, public schools lost students during pandemic:

Charter schools scooped up hundreds of thousands of additional students across the U.S. during the coronavirus outbreak while enrollment plunged at traditional public schools amid building closures and inferior virtual learning, a new report reveals.

Charter school enrollment increased by 7.1 percent nationally during 2020-’21 amid the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the “Voting With Their Feet” analysis conducted by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Enrollment at charter schools jumped from 3,350,785 students in 2019-2020 to 3,588,094 in 2021 — or nearly 240,000.

At the same time, traditional public school enrollment plunged by 3.3 percent — a drop of nearly 1.5 million kids — from 44,025,289 to 42,572,705, the report released Wednesday states.

In New York State, charter school enrollment jumped 7.4 percent while students in traditional public schools dropped by 3.6 percent.

Much of the increase in charter school enrollment occurred in New York City, home to the lion’s share of the publicly-funded, privately managed schools. Enrollment in city charters surged by nearly 10,000 students — from 128,951 to 138,613, according to the New York City Charter School Center. --->READ MORE HERE

Follow links below to related stories and resources:

CDC says COVID booster shots will rely on honor system

CDC panel backs Pfizer booster shot for seniors, at-risk adults

USA TODAY: Coronavirus Updates

WSJ: Coronavirus Live Updates

YAHOO NEWS: Coronavirus Live Updates

NEW YORK POST: Coronavirus The Latest

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