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Political science expert says Biden’s vaccine mandate may overstep Constitutional powers

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — Some political science experts believe President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate announcement Thursday was a huge bypass of the normal process it takes to pass legislation.

Biden will have OSHA make a rule requiring employees of companies to be tested. Companies will have to pay for the testing, but they can pass the cost on to employees.

Dr. Mark Caleb Smith, director of the Center for Political Studies at Cedarville University, said he was shocked with Biden’s announcement

“It’s probably not getting up to detaining Japanese-Americans during World War II but its not that far away,” Smith said. “When you’re talking of tens-of-millions of American citizens potentially being forced into a medical decision they want to avoid, it’s a remarkable thing.”

Some experts believe Biden’s vaccine mandate will go down in history, and not in a good way.

Smith said it will all come down to how the court will interpret the OSHA statute, which includes an emergency standard that allows Biden to issue emergency rulings if it presents a grave danger to our society — but he doesn’t believe the coronavirus pandemic will suffice.

“I think it’s going to be difficult, the vaccines do work at some level but people who don’t have them are still surviving at very high rates,” Smith said. “Legislation doesn’t really unpack what that phrase should be in terms of ‘grave danger’ so it’s going to be interesting to watch.”

The Supreme Court will have to determine if the vaccine mandate violated the president’s powers obtained in Article II of the US Constitution, but it all depends on the phrase “grave danger.”

“For the president to do this just with his own power through executive power, no legislation in place, without the typical notice and comment period connected to federal bureaucratic decisions, it’s a huge bypass of the typical process,” Smith said.

Smith’s prediction? That Biden’s mandate will probably backfire on him.

“I think the opposite might happen, a lot of people are going to draw a line in the sand and say I’m not going to do it, you’re not going to order me to do it,” Smith said. “I understand where the president is coming from, but a part of me feels like he misread the political moment here, he’s going to get a lot of resistance.”

Biden didn’t mention a deadline for companies to start mandating the vaccine or test, but he encouraged them to do so as soon as possible.