Appellate Advocacy Blog Weekly Roundup Friday, December 18, 2021

Each week, the Appellate Advocacy Blog Weekly Roundup presents a few tidbits of news and Twitter posts from the past week concerning appellate advocacy. As always, if you see something during the week that you think we should be sure to include, feel free to send a quick note to either (1) Dan Real at DReal@Creighton.edu or on Twitter @Daniel_L_Real or (2) Catharine Du Bois at DuBoisLegalWriting@gmail.com or on Twitter @CLDLegalWriting.

We wish you a festive and safe holiday! 

US Supreme Court Opinions and News

• The Supreme Court refused two emergency requests from healthcare workers seeking to block New York’s vaccine mandate for healthcare workers. The mandate allows exemptions for medical objection but does not allow exemptions for religious objection. This ruling is in keeping with the Court’s rulings allowing vaccine mandates in Indiana, Massachusetts, and Maine. See reports from The New York Times, CNN, and The Washington Post.

• The DOJ asked the Supreme Court to allow a nationwide vaccine mandate for healthcare workers. Lower courts have blocked the mandate from going into effect in about half the states. See reports from Politico and CNN.

Appellate Court Opinions and News

• A Sixth Circuit ruling has reinstated OSHA’s rule requiring businesses with over 100 employees to mandate that workers be vaccinated by January 4 or face mask requirements and weekly tests. The ruling overturned last month’s Fifth Circuit ruling that had blocked the OSHA rule. (See our past coverage.) The case was reassigned to the Sixth Circuit when the many similar challenges to the rule were consolidated and assigned through the lottery system for multidistrict litigation. See decision and reports in The New York Times and CNBC.

  The court also denied en banc review. See report in The National Law Review.