Washington
Biden administration officially withdraws vaccine rule
The Biden administration has officially withdrawn a rule that would have required workers at big companies to get vaccinated or face regular COVID testing requirements.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration confirmed the withdrawal Tuesday. But the agency said it still strongly encourages workers to get vaccinated.
In early November, OSHA announced a vaccine-or-test mandate for companies with at least 100 employees. The rule __ which would have impacted more than 80 million U.S. workers __ was originally set to go into effect on Jan. 4.
But numerous states and business groups challenged the rule in court. On Jan. 13, the Supreme Court halted the plan. In a 6-3 ruling, the court’s conservative majority concluded that OSHA had overstepped its authority.
“OSHA has never before imposed such a mandate. Nor has Congress,” the court’s majority wrote. “Indeed, although Congress has enacted significant legislation addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, it has declined to enact any measure similar to what OSHA has promulgated here.”
The justices left in place a vaccine mandate for health care providers who receive federal Medicare or Medicaid funding. That rule affects 10.4 million workers.
U.S. corporations have been split over whether to mandate employee vaccinations. United Airlines began requiring vaccines in August; the company says 99% of its workers have been vaccinated or have requested medical or religious exemptions. Tyson Foods, which also announced a mandate in August, says 96% of its workers were vaccinated by a Nov. 1 deadline.
But other big businesses, including Starbucks and General Electric, scrapped previously announced vaccine mandates for their employees after the Supreme Court’s ruling.
OSHA indicated that the rule could return in some form. While it is no longer an enforceable standard, it remains a proposed rule, OSHA said. For now, the agency said it will prioritize the health care mandate.
David Michaels, an epidemiologist and former OSHA administrator who now teaches at The George Washington University, said the agency could consider a new rule that would include other measures designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in workplaces, such as requiring face masks, distancing, and better ventilation systems.
California
Earlier releases for repeat offenders halted pending appeal
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s on-again, off-again plan to allow earlier potential prison releases for certain repeat offenders was off again Tuesday, pending an appeal by more than half of California’s 58 district attorneys.
Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Judith Craddick reinstated a temporary restraining order that was lifted last week by another judge.
The order again temporarily prevents corrections officials from increasing good conduct credits for offenders with serious and violent criminal histories under the state’s “three strikes” law. The credits would go only to second-strike inmates serving time for nonviolent offenses who are housed at minimum-security prisons and camps.
Twenty-eight of California’s 58 district attorneys moved to block the rule.
Sacramento Superior Court Judge Shama Mesiwala ruled last week that the prosecutors lacked legal standing to challenge the regulations.
Craddick renewed the stay to give prosecutors time to appeal Mesiwala’s ruling to California’s 3rd District Court of Appeals, and to give that court time to act.
Corrections officials said they would comply with the new order.
West Virginia
New court specialists have personal recovery experience
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia’s family treatment courts are hiring people with personal experience with substance misuse to help guide and support parents who are in recovery.
The family treatment courts recently created four new “peer recovery support specialist” positions using state and federal grants, according to a news release from the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. The peer support specialists, who work as liaisons between court participants and treatment teams, are part of an effort to increase retention within the program.
Megan Griffin, the new peer support specialist in Nicholas County, said the program gives people going through the court system “the gift of being understood.”
“It gives participants the idea that they can have a life worth living, that they have a chance to begin that new life and change,” she said.
Supreme Court administrative officials said their goal is to eventually have one specialist in each of the state’s 10 treatment courts. The family treatment court program serves individuals with substance use disorders who are also involved in a child abuse and neglect case.
Montana
County to pay $66k in damages over transgender care
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A former Yellowstone County employee has been awarded $66,500 in damages because the county’s health benefits plan denied payment for gender-confirming health care, leading her to leave her job, the ACLU of Montana announced.
A Montana Human Rights Bureau administrative hearing officer awarded the damages Monday to Eleanor Anderson Maloney, a transgender woman and former prosecutor in the county attorney’s office.
Maloney filed a complaint in 2019 after she was denied health care related to sex reassignment in 2018. The county’s health insurance plan at the time expressly denied coverage for “services or supplies related to sexual reassignment and reversal of such procedures,” the bureau noted.
In June 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court — in Bostock v. Clayton County — ruled that the Civil Rights Act protects employees against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
In August 2020, an administrative law judge with the Montana Human Rights Bureau ruled that the county insurance plan’s ban on coverage for gender-confirming care was illegal sexual discrimination and violated the Montana Human Rights Act.
That left just the determination of damages.
The damage award announced Monday covers lost compensation and earnings due to Maloney’s “constructive discharge,” which happens when a person resigns due to a hostile or intolerable work environment.
The county doesn’t intend to appeal the damage award, Chief Deputy County Attorney Geana Lervick said Tuesday.
