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COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCSC) - South Carolina’s attorney general on Saturday filed an appeal to the Supreme Court over a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for larger businesses.
The filing comes after Attorney General Alan Wilson vowed to fight Friday night’s ruling from the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Friday night a panel of judges on the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to reverse a lower-court ruling that had paused the mandate, which would apply to companies with 100 or more employees.
Wilson says he is joining 26 other states and “a long list of companies and organizations” in the appeal which was filed just before 1 a.m. Saturday morning.
“The fight against the Biden mandate continues, even to filing for a stay in the early hours of this morning,” Wilson said. “The rule of law will prevail and the President’s grasp for power halted.”
The filing argues, “This case does not present the question whether vaccines or vaccine mandates are wise or desirable. Instead, it presents the narrow questions whether OSHA had authority to issue the Mandate, and whether it lawfully exercised whatever authority it had. After all, ‘our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully,’ even during a pandemic and ‘even in pursuit of desirable ends.’”
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Saturday that it would not issue citations before Jan. 10 for any requirements pertaining to the mandate. They also said no citations would be issued before Feb. 9 for noncompliance with the testing requirements as long as an employer is “exercising reasonable, good faith efforts,” in regards to the testing requirements.
The mandate was previously scheduled to take effect on Jan. 4.
The full text of the filing can be read here.
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