Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida has decided to call a special session to address vaccine mandates. How? Florida is going to remove itself from OSHA.
"We're going to do something in this special session that is going to put people's minds at ease, it's going to save their jobs," DeSantis said.
That's the why. But the question is how. And, can they do that?
Look at Arizona. In 1993, AZ decided that OSHA didn't work for them, so they created their own state agency, the Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health. ADOSH mostly does the exact same thing as OSHA, so there hasn't been much boat rocking, but now there is. And the Arizona Senate, House, and attorney general are all very bold (Gov. Doug Ducey is not). AZ may very well use ADOSH to remove itself entirely from OSHA in practice, and in vaccine mandates.
And that will certainly be a type of precedent for Florida to create it's own, but as usual, expect Florida to be even bolder.
The FL speaker of the house said this: "If OSHA, the Department of Labor and OSHA, is going to be weaponized as a way to hold hostage businesses throughout the state of Florida, no problem. We want a different plan." He continued, "We want out of OSHA. We'll submit our own regulatory authority and say goodbye to the federal government."
Using Arizona as the model, it will probably work. But more importantly, there are several cases in this same vein working their way to the Supreme Court right now. Aside from this and the 5th Circuit overturning the mandate, there's a case called "American Hospital Association vs. Becerra." The actual details of the case are mind-meltingly boring, but their implications are not. What will be decided is how broad is the authority of unelected federal agencies. Because, surprise surprise, that's who makes most of the laws & regulations in this country now. Specifically, how much leeway does the EPA have to force climate change regulations on businesses? What the court says about the EPA will then be applied to OSHA and other regulatory agencies. The implications are huge.
Today, the question isn't whether Florida is going to do move forward with this. They are. The Republican Senate President and the Republican Speaker of the House are both on board, and the special session is going to happen. The question is whether the court is going to uphold the 10th Amendment, and simultaneously begin pulling the reigns on the Federal Government at large.
The 10th Amendment:
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
Ryan Wiggins is the author of the extremely serious and not funny robot novel, The Life of Human, and is a writer and producer of television shows. He is the host of Wiggins America on 97.1 FM Talk in St. Louis.