The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation has chosen the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit to hear suits over OSHA’s emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 vaccinations -- a boost to employers, GOP-led states and conservative groups seeking to scrap the rule, as the court is dominated by Republican nominees.
September 17, 2026
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has extended indefinitely its stay of OSHA’s COVID-19 vaccine emergency temporary standard (ETS) just days before a multi-court panel is set to consolidate all pending ETS suits before a single court, holding that the rule is “fatally flawed” on statutory grounds and is “likely unconstitutional.”
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The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) has designated three cases for review by the full body, setting the stage for new decisions on how OSHA enforces its fall protection standard along with a host of general duty clause guidelines, even as President Joe Biden’s nominee to an open seat on the panel remains pending.
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EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG)’s annual report on management challenges facing the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) once again finds that the panel cannot function properly with just one Senate-confirmed member, even after reworking its governing rules to better fit the current “quorum of one."
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Labor unions have filed at least three lawsuits over OSHA’s emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 vaccination, opening proceedings in appellate courts with a Democratic majority among their active judges, ahead of an expected “lottery” to consolidate all ETS litigation in a single circuit.
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OSHA is urging a federal appellate court to wait to consider litigants’ bids to block implementation of its COVID-19 vaccine standard until the many pending challenges to that rule are consolidated into a single venue, while also raising its first defenses of the rule against claims that the policy is unlawful or unconstitutional.
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Legal experts and a former OSHA official say a federal appeals court’s order blocking implementation of the agency’s COVID-19 vaccine standard is unlikely to have a long-term impact on the rule, while worker safety advocates are pointing to the unusually quick ruling as proof that politics are “front and center” in litigation over the policy.
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has blocked implementation of OSHA’s emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 vaccination, writing in a one-page order that the rule appears to have “grave statutory and constitutional issues,” marking the first victory for opponents of the ETS in a barrage of pending suits over its legality.
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OSHA’s new emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 vaccination is drawing mixed reactions from stakeholders, as safety advocates are generally backing the rule but say it is not protective enough, while industry and others split between groups welcoming the mandate, sometimes with reservations, and others who say it is unlawful.
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OSHA has released its emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 vaccinations, with a Jan. 4 deadline for employers with 100 or more workers to begin requiring their employees to either show proof of vaccination or test weekly for the coronavirus, with administrative and record keeping mandates set to take effect Dec. 5.
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Manufacturers are urging OSHA to adopt industry consensus standards as the basis for first-time updates to its 1971 mechanical power press rule, and to consider a separate standard for hydraulic and pneumatic presses, but are split on the feasibility and cost of quickly implementing any such changes.
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Stakeholders on all sides say Democrats’ proposal to raise the OSH Act’s cap on penalties to $700,000 per violation would reshape OSHA enforcement, with labor and safety groups praising the bill as a much-needed boost to deterrence while employers’ attorneys are predicting a “big” increase in legal challenges to individual fines.
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The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has completed its review of OSHA’s COVID-19 vaccination standard and the agency says it will release the rule “in the coming days,” as Republican state leaders and other opponents of vaccine mandates ready an expected blitz of legal challenges.
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House members used recent hearings on COVID-19 issues to raise competing claims on OSHA’s impending vaccination standard, with Republicans arguing that the rule could exacerbate supply chain shortages and other economic fallout from the pandemic while Democrats said the agency must take a strict approach to protect workers.
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Just-released legislative text that House Democratic leaders say implements a deal between President Joe Biden and Senate moderates for a $1.75 trillion social spending package maintains the previously announced proposal to raise statutory penalties for OSH Act violations by a factor of 10, along with $707 million in funding for OSHA itself.
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OSHA will reconstitute its Federal Advisory Council on Occupational Safety and Health (FACOSH), six years after the body last met, as part of a wide-ranging executive order from President Joe Biden that seeks to reconstitute over 30 executive-level advisory panels that the Trump administration scrapped in 2017.
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OSHA’s long-awaited call for input on a federal heat danger standard details dozens of subjects where the agency is seeking data and recommendations from stakeholders, including lessons learned from existing state and employer heat programs, metrics for identifying dangerous temperatures, and equity issues related to the hazard.
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The Senate has confirmed Doug Parker as the first permanent head of OSHA since the Obama era in a mostly party-line Oct. 25 vote that puts the former California work-safety chief in control of the agency just as it is poised to implement a much-anticipated COVID-19 vaccine standard and a host of the administration’s other priorities.
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A new decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit refusing to block Maine’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate for healthcare workers over religious-freedom claims could bode well for OSHA’s impending general-industry vaccine standard, but attorneys say any such case is still likely to go to the Supreme Court.
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Senate leaders are teeing up two long-awaited steps for OSHA, scheduling a floor vote for Oct. 25 on former California safety chief Doug Parker’s nomination to lead the agency and proposing a fiscal year 2022 appropriations bill that includes a $74.1 million funding boost largely focused on its enforcement work.
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