Here’s how California should respond to the Supreme Court’s horrible anti-vax ruling

A reasonable American could grow despondent considering the kangaroo court now serving as the nation’s highest tribunal. Not only did the U.S. Supreme Court’s right wing effectively join the lunatic anti-vaccination vanguard last week by striking down a federal rule requiring vaccination and other pandemic precautions in large workplaces in the midst of a record-shattering surge of COVID cases. One of its members, Justice Neil Gorsuch, also went so far as to refuse Chief Justice John Roberts’ request to wear a mask during proceedings, forcing Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a diabetic who sits next to Gorsuch, to participate remotely.

Fortunately, nearly 40 million Americans live in a state with the power and supposedly the inclination to redress this error. Gov. Gavin Newsom and California’s workplace safety officials should respond by instituting a similar or stricter vaccination mandate for the state’s workplaces.

The high court’s decision blocked enforcement of a Biden administration rule that went into effect a few days beforehand, mandating that workplaces with at least 100 employees require proof of coronavirus vaccination or regular testing and masking. The directive was clearly within the bounds of common sense as well as the legal authority of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). As if to underscore the arbitrariness of the court’s ruling, the justices simultaneously upheld a federal vaccination mandate affecting health care workers, though four of the right-wing justices would have blocked that rule too.

The ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed by business interests and Republican-run states, several of which have taken it upon themselves to prohibit employers from requiring workers to be vaccinated. That gives California an opportunity to stand up for a safer, science-based approach to the pandemic — the sort of policy that, according to Newsom, was resoundingly ratified by his defeat of last year’s recall attempt.

The Newsom administration has issued vaccination and testing mandates affecting state employees, health care workers, school staff and students, and anyone attending large events. The state Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal-OSHA) tightened rules on masking and testing in workplaces more broadly as of last week. Also last week, a state appellate court rejected the argument of business groups challenging the state’s emergency workplace rules, affirming the governor’s power to require such measures.

The Supreme Court’s reckless ruling and the pandemic’s mounting economic and human toll, particularly among the unvaccinated and often among essential and other workers, justify a more assertive approach. New York City showed the way by imposing a vaccination mandate for all in-person work last month. By not providing a testing loophole, the city went further than most of California’s rules for narrower segments of the workforce.

Newsom’s vaccination requirements have been marred by exceptions as well as the administration’s legal battle to ensure that many of the state’s prison guards could remain unvaccinated in some of its highest-risk facilities. By following New York’s lead and stepping into the breach left by the Supreme Court, the governor could reclaim his administration’s leadership on the pandemic, boost flagging vaccinations, help revive the economy and stem the spread of a disease that has killed nearly 80,000 Californians.