The National Law Review has awarded Varnum LLP with the Article of the Year Thought Leadership Award for their coverage of the US Supreme Court’s failure to rule on the legality of Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Emergency Temporary Standard for COVID-19. The ETS covered all employers with more than 100 employees, and provided requirements for time off for vaccination, masking mandates, weekly testing, and much more. “Federal Vaccine/Testing Mandates Take Effect While Supreme Court Stays Silent,” authored by Varnum’s Luis E. Avila, Maureen Rouse-Ayoub, Stephanie R. Setterington, Elizabeth Wells Skaggs, Ashleigh E. Draft, and Justin M. Wolber detailed how these requirements were left untouched by SCOTUS in January of 2022, causing cascading effects in Michigan and beyond, as well as for CMS’ vaccination rule and for the extensive federal litigation surrounding the contentious coronavirus mandates. The article reached an audience of over 265,000 readers over the course of the year, speaking to the ongoing importance and timeliness of COVID-19 news coverage, and cementing it as the National Law Review’s Article of the Year.
Today, January 10, 2022, the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) on COVID-19 for employers with 100 or more employees takes effect. Although many had anticipated that the U.S. Supreme Court might rule on the legality of the OSHA ETS prior to today, the Court’s failure to do so means that covered employers should be prepared to comply.
