February 1, 2022 Update | Previous update published September 16, 2021 | Originally published December 31, 2020 (see below)

Although litigation is still ongoing for some vaccine-related mandates, we have new guidance and key developments in vaccine mandate litigation and regulations since our September 20021 update:

• Following the Supreme Court’s decision blocking the vaccine mandate for large employers, OSHA recently announced that it was withdrawing the vaccination and testing emergency temporary standard issued on Nov. 5, 2021, to protect unvaccinated employees of large employers from workplace exposure to coronavirus. The withdrawal was effective January 26, 2022. This essentially ends the litigation related to the ETS.

  OSHA further announced that although it was withdrawing the ETS as an emergency rule, it does not intend to withdraw it as a proposed rule, and reiterated its “strong encouragement” for work vaccination.

• For health care workers, the Court allowed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ final rule (CMS Healthcare Vaccine Mandate) to go forward and become effective. See our MN COVID-19 Resource Center January 13 article.
• As for federal contractors, since President Biden signed Executive Order 14042 on September 9, 2021, lawsuits have been filed in several federal courts. With litigation pending and stays in place, no enforcement action will be taken at this time. See Safer Federal Workforce for updated guidance as released.
• In November,...

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