The recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that dealt with the Biden Administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate spurred legislation in the Iowa Senate.

Iowa District 24 Senator Jesse Green applauds the high court’s ruling in that the mandate for employers with at least 100 employees were required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 was struck down, which would be implemented and enforced by the Occupational and Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Green doesn’t believe the topic ends with the Supreme Court.

“And it’s not completely over with, they pretty much kicked it back down to the lower courts to play with this topic. But they did set the tone that if something else was to come up from OSHA on their desk that they’re not going to be playing around with this. They’re probably going to shoot it down.”    

However, Green was disappointed about the upheld decision about healthcare employees having to be vaccinated or have federal funds reduced for Medicare and Medicaid. 

Green shares what happened later that day after the Supreme Court’s ruling with another conversation he had with Republican Senator Dennis Guth.

“Dennis, didn’t you have last year a bill drafted to add vaccination status to the Civil Rights Code. And he’s like, ‘Yup.’ I’ll never forget it that, he pulls it right out from his desk and we walked up and we filed it.” 

Green adds the bill would include vaccination status as part of the Iowa Civil Rights Act, where an individual could not be discriminated against because of their vaccination status, similar to discrimination against gender or color of skin.