The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily halted new federal workplace safety rules Saturday that would have required as many as 84 million American workers to either take COVID-19 vaccines or undergo weekly testing and wear masks.
The court granted an emergency stay of the requirements, issued Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, because of potential “grave statutory and constitutional issues."
The requirements — the Biden administration's effort to slow the spread of coronavirus at workplaces in an ongoing pandemic that has already killed more than 750,000 Americans — would have applied to all private companies with 100 or more workers as well as all health care organizations that take Medicare and Medicaid funding.
And in 26 states, including Michigan, public-sector workers also would have been required to meet a standard at least as rigorous as the federal government's.
When the details of the federal mandate were unveiled Thursday, it sent many Michigan businesses and public-sector employers into a frenzy as they tried to figure out how to put the rules in place.
The city of Royal Oak was working through the specifics Friday afternoon, and offered no details about how the mandate would be rolled out among its 459 full-time and part-time municipal employees.
"While we understand the need for the vaccine mandate, it’s complex," said City Manager Paul J. Brake. He explained that Royal Oak's leaders are...
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