A new law proposed in South Carolina could make it illegal for an employer or other organization to ask about a person’s vaccine status.
South Carolina House Bill 4848, also called the “don’t ask” bill, would make questions about a person’s COVID-19 status a misdemeanor crime.
“Notwithstanding another provision of law to the contrary, any employee, officer, agent, or other representative of a public, nonprofit, or private entity who inquires about the COVID-19 vaccination status of any student, employee, member, or anyone else seeking admission on the entity’s premises is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, must be fined not more than fourteen thousand dollars or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.” the bill’s text states.
Republican state Rep. Bill Chumley served as one of the co-sponsors of the newly-proposed bill.
“South Carolina didn’t want to get in this fight,” Chumley said, according to FOX Carolina. “It was brought to us by the federal government.”
“States have a right to impose certain laws if they want to, and to not impose others we feel are unconstitutional,” he added.
The bill has currently been moved to committee for further consideration.
The proposed legislation follows the Supreme Court’s ruling against an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) order directing large employers to ensure that their employees are either vaccinated or tested regularly for COVID-19.
As The Daily Wire reported at the time:
The Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration’s emergency rule that would have forced large employers to vaccinate or regularly test their employees.
The decision, delivered Thursday, is a major victory for the mandate’s critics, including The Daily Wire which sued the Biden administration in November. The Daily Wire and others appealed to the Supreme Court to block the order after the Sixth Circuit lifted a stay put in place by the Fifth Circuit.
“OSHA’s COVID–19 Vaccination and Testing; Emergency Temporary Standard, 86 Fed. Reg. 61402, is stayed pending disposition of the applicants’ petitions for review in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and disposition of the applicants’ petitions for writs of certiorari, if such writs are timely sought. Should the petitions for writs of certiorari be denied, this order shall terminate automatically. In the event the petitions for writs of certiorari are granted, the order shall terminate upon the sending down of the judgment of this Court,” the court concluded in a 6-3 decision.
On Friday, the Supreme Court also struck down a Biden administration order mandating that federal employees be vaccinated against COVID-19.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown ruled against the Biden administration, arguing that the president lacked the authority for the decision.
“The court notes at the outset that this case is not about whether folks should get vaccinated against COVID-19—the court believes they should. It is not even about the federal government’s power, exercised properly, to mandate vaccination of its employees,” Brown wrote.
“It is instead about whether the President can, with the stroke of a pen and without the input of Congress, require millions of federal employees to undergo a medical procedure as a condition of their employment. That, under the current state of the law as just recently expressed by the Supreme Court, is a bridge too far,” the judge said.
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Source: Dailywire
