Well, it didn't take long for the bloom to come off the rose with regard to the Supreme Court's OSHA decision when Circle Back Jen and the president broadcast their intention to ignore the Court's ruling by encouraging businesses to implement their own vaccine mandates.  One way or the other, the federal government is going to make sure everyone is vaccinated, or these people will at least do every conceivable thing in their power to make that happen — including enlisting the aid of their corporate heavies.

As Circle Back said, it is

up to individual employers to determine whether their workplaces will be safe for employees and whether their businesses will be safe for consumers.

So President Biden will be calling on and will continue to call on businesses to immediately join those who have already stepped up, including 1/3 of Fortune 100 companies, to institute vaccination requirements to protect their workers, customers, and communities.

Like a good little boy, Biden reiterated his spokesweasel's comments (hat tip for "spokesweasel":  Monica Showalter) in his statement to the country: 

As a result of the Court's decision, it is now up to States and individual employers to determine whether to make their workplaces as safe as possible for employees, and whether their businesses will be safe for consumers during this pandemic by requiring employees to take the simple and effective step of getting vaccinated.

To that end, Biden said he would continue to "[use his] voice as president to advocate for employers to do the right thing" and, echoing the sentiments expressed by Psaki earlier, will "call on business leaders to immediately join those who have already stepped up — including one-third of Fortune 100 companies — and institute vaccination requirements to protect their workers, customers, and communities."  At least they got their talking points lined up.

For a leader who is compelling individuals to choose between earning a living and a medical technology that is not fully vetted for its long-term adverse effects, and is openly hoarding and withholding monoclonal antibodies that reduce hospitalization and death by 70% and shorten illness by four days...it is rich when Biden says he is "disappointed that the Supreme Court has chosen to block common-sense life-saving requirements" that he further concludes are "a very modest burden" on employees. 

Let me make sure you get that.  Under the pretense of saving lives, Biden is literally forcing "life-saving" vaccines on people by denying them life-saving therapeutics and medications.  In Seinfeld-speak, he has to kill people in order to save their lives. 

Biden and Psaki might very well rue the day they defied the Supreme Court and publicly enlisted Corporate America to mandate vaccines the federal government was just told it has no authority to implement.  Their comments above will be incontrovertible evidence of their intentions to, once again, circumvent the Constitution and the Supreme Court. 

As for being "a very modest burden"?  It at best shows how out of touch the elites are — at worst, how little they actually care about our lives.

While it is true that private corporations can condition employment on certain requirements — as long as their hiring practices and terms fall within existing civil rights and employment laws, as well as negotiated union agreements — if they terminate or refuse to hire employees based on their vaccination status, it raises the interesting question of whether businesses can lawfully deprive employees of their life, liberty, and property when that deprivation comes at the behest of the Executive.

Since the Court decided the OSHA case on federalism grounds, correctly clarifying that states — not the federal government — have police powers over public health, I wouldn't be surprised if blue states that already have onerous restrictions on our freedoms go full-blown Nazi on us. 

If so, we can expect lawsuits right and left for deprivations of life, liberty, and property.  There might also be 4th Amendment privacy violations — turns out the Canadian government secretly tracked 33 million cell phones during the pandemic to monitor the movement of Canadians.  Does anyone doubt the same might be happening here? 

Given that both the vaccinated and the unvaccinated can transmit and contract COVID, if they are being treated differently from one another with no justification for such a disparity, that would be an unequal application of the law under the Equal Protection Clause — as will be the case if hospitals and doctors follow through on government promises of prioritizing COVID treatment based on race as opposed to severity of illness. 

Can't say I'm looking forward to years of litigation to resolve these matters, but when it comes to COVID, Democrats are like a dog with a bone.  They aren't going to let it go and move on.  

When individuals are deprived of essential liberties, the courts will usually employ a strict scrutiny test that covers two prongs: (1) does the state have a compelling interest in regulating public health during a pandemic, and (2) in doing so, did it take the least restrictive means? 

Whereas, at the beginning of the pandemic, the government's "compelling interest" argument might have been more convincing, it will be hard-pressed to meet that standard as the urgent nature of the pandemic subsides, herd immunity strengthens and the virus weakens, vaccine efficacy and boosters continue to wane, and more information is revealed about side-effects.

Moreover, as more studies demonstrate the reliability and effectiveness of inexpensive protocols, monoclonal antibodies, and ridiculously expensive pills like Pfizer's Paxlovid and Merck's Molnupiravir, I doubt the government could satisfy the least restrictive standard — even today.

Another possible reaction from the Biden administration would be to search for another agency loophole or revisit the OSHA mandate by narrowly tailoring it to certain industries — but this would take a long time and just end up back in court. 

When all is said and done, with the imprimatur of the Supreme Court and the support of the Bidenites, my money is on blue states being so drunk with power that they make life in Australia and Canada look like nirvana.  Unless dips in election polling and approval numbers sober them up, it's time to pack your bags and head for freedom in the red states. 

Image via Public Domain Pictures.