As the two-year anniversary of COVID quickly approaches, many Americans are questioning, “How did ‘two weeks to flatten the curve’ turn into two years?” As time has passed, Americans have been drowned in mask mandates, vaccines mandates, and draconian restrictions to a degree of which the Land of the Free has never suffered through before. Thankfully, it all appears to be coming to an end.
Since Biden began his presidency, he has attempted to subject millions of Americans to vaccine mandates that infringe on their rights, liberty, and privacy. Such orders include the vaccine mandates for federal employees, federal contractors, private companies with more than 100 employees, healthcare workers, and even the United States Military. To no surprise, most mandates have received strong push-back, even in the U.S. Supreme Court.
A judge in Texas announced that Biden could not “legally require that the 3.5 million government employees be vaccinated against the coronavirus and blocked the U.S. government from disciplining employees who failed to comply.” Another win for American freedom arose in Georgia. Like federal employees, vaccine mandates have been “temporarily halted for all federal contractors in any state or territory of the United States of America.” Not to mention the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Biden administration’s vaccine-or-test rule, declaring that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration had overstepped its authority. The vote to abolish the vaccine-or-test regulation was split 6 to 3, in the Supreme Court, along ideological lines. In their opinion, the majority stated that “although Congress has indisputably given OSHA the power to regulate occupational dangers, it has not given that agency the power to regulate public health more broadly… requiring the vaccination of 84 million Americans, selected simply because they work for employers with more than 100 employees, certainly falls in the latter category.” At least one branch of our federal government is standing up for our American workers.
Recently, it is not just vaccine mandates that have taken a hit; mask mandates are also starting to rightfully fall, for America has been masked long enough. Ex-FDA chief Scott Gottlieb is calling for “the end of ‘divisive’ mask and vaccine mandates” as COVID cases continue to fall dramatically. Gottlieb scorned American health officials for not adjusting rules and restrictions as the pandemic’s course begins to slow. The Ex-FDA chief explains that “we haven’t described clear goalposts for when we’re gonna withdraw a lot of these measures,” which leaves the end of the pandemic seem out of reach and scarily impossible.
Finally, another light appears at the end of this long, dark tunnel, as a state judge has just overturned the mask mandate in New York. The court papers examine rule 10 NYCRR 2.60; 2.60(a), which requires all state residents to wear a face-covering if above the age of 2 in public settings if social distancing is not applicable, including schools and school children. After reviewing the state law, the court ruled that 10 NYCRR 2.60; 2.60(a) is “a law that was promulgated and enacted unlawfully by an Executive branch state agency, and therefore void and unenforceable as a matter of law.” This law was improperly enacted, unconstitutional, and a violation of American freedom.
As President Biden’s unlawful mandates continue to fail within the justice system, Americans everywhere continue to win, and we’re not done yet; not until every mandate and infringement of our rights is ruled void.
Blake Mauro
Blake Mauro is a sophomore political science major with a media studies minor at Clemson University. She is very passionate about politics and journalism and hopes to pursue a career in the media industry as a voice for the silent majority following her graduation.
The views expressed in this article are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Lone Conservative staff.
