Biden's vaccine mandate: Expert would be 'surprised' to see legal challenges prevail

[FBaggins]

2. I wouldn't call an employment law professor an "expert" on this issue

Frankly, I'd be surprised if the challenges fail.

Surely the professor had to take a con law class at some point? Usually the very first example to the question "What on earth does the 10th amendment even refer to?" is the lack of police powers for the federal government. It's why the military can't act as law enforcement within the states. States do have police powers - and that's why they can mandate vaccinations or masks or testing. But the federal government can't. That's also why (throughout the pandemic) experts on both sides (including the president, speaker of the House, Dr. Fauci, etc.) have all said that they can't mandate the vaccine.

Using OSHA is a clever strategy that should help in getting millions of people vaccinated before it is eventually overturned. But overturned it will be. Think of it like the CDC eviction strategy. The President knew that he lacked the power to do it... and knew that it would be thrown out in court pretty quickly. He just also knew that "pretty quickly" would still take some time and (during that time) people would avoid eviction.

It would be interesting to see what the courts would do if Congress delegated a similar power to the President using Commerce Clause language. It would spoil this year's moot court topic... but it would be interesting.