High Court Vaccine Mandate Case Puts Agency Power to the Test (1)

The power of a federal health agency to make critical decisions could hang on whether the U.S. Supreme Court allows the Biden administration to enforce its vaccine mandate for health-care workers while lawsuits unfold.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Covid-19 vaccine mandate is the first time the agency forced an inoculation—wading into territory that is usually governed by individual states. The action was meant to create a federal standard to replace the patchwork of state laws that either mandated the vaccine or banned employers from requiring it.

The rule was designed to protect health-care workers and patients across ...