Constitutional Challenges to the OSHA COVID-19
Vaccination Mandate
PAUL J. LARKIN*
ABSTRACT
Acting pursuant to a presidential directive, in November 2021 the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued an order, known
as a federal “emergency temporary standard” (ETS), requiring private busi-
nesses with 100 or more employees to ensure that every employee is vaccinated
against COVID-19 or, if unvaccinated, to wear a face covering in the workplace
and present a negative test result on a weekly basis. Numerous parties filed suit,
arguing that OSHA lacks the authority to issue the ETS and that, even if OSHA
has that power, the ETS is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court of the United
States concluded that OSHA appears to lack that authority and stayed the ETS
pending the completion of the litigation. If OSHA now turns to Congress for au-
thorization, Congress will need to resolve the constitutional issues. In that
event, most of the constitutional challenges—viz., ones based on the Due
Process Clause, Free Exercise Clause, or Fourth Amendment—are unlikely to
prevail. The likelihood of success on a Commerce Clause challenge is uncertain
at present.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
I. THE COMMERCE CLAUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
II. THE DUE PROCESS CLAUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
III. THE FREE EXERCISE CLAUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
IV. THE FOURTH AMENDMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
CONCLUSION .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
* John, Barbara & Victoria Rumpel Senior Legal Research Fellow, The Heritage Foundation; M.P.
P. George Washington University, 2010; J.D. Stanford Law School, 1980; B.A. Washington & Lee
University, 1977. The views expressed in this Article are the author’s own and should not be construed
as representing any official position of The Heritage Foundation. I am grateful to Doug Badger, Josh
Blackman, Marie Fishpaw, Joel Griffith, and John G. Malcolm for helpful comments on an earlier
iteration of this Article. I also want to thank Maxwell Myrhum, Alex Phipps, and Katherine Williams
Wiegand for invaluable research assistance. Any errors are mine. © 2022, Paul J. Larkin.
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