Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/21a240_d18e.pdf
Page Number: 19

Cite as:  595 U. S. ____ (2022) 

1 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

_________________ 

Nos. 21A240 and 21A241 
_________________ 

JOSEPH R. BIDEN, JR., PRESIDENT OF THE 
UNITED STATES, ET AL., APPLICANTS 
v. 
MISSOURI, ET AL. 

21A240 

XAVIER BECERRA, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND 
HUMAN SERVICES, ET AL., APPLICANTS 
v. 
LOUISIANA, ET AL. 

21A241 

ON APPLICATIONS FOR STAYS

 [January 13, 2022]

 JUSTICE  ALITO,  with  whom  JUSTICE  THOMAS,  JUSTICE 

GORSUCH, and JUSTICE BARRETT join, dissenting. 

I join JUSTICE THOMAS’s dissent because I do not think 
that  the  Federal  Government  is  likely  to  be  able  to  show 
that  Congress  has  authorized  the  unprecedented  step  of
compelling  over  10,000,000  healthcare  workers  to  be  vac-
cinated  on  pain  of  being  fired.    The  support  for  the  argu-
ment that the Federal Government possesses such author-
ity  is  so  obscure  that  the  main  argument  now  pressed  by 
the  Government—that  the  authority  is  conferred  by  a 
hodgepodge  of  scattered  provisions—was  not  prominently 
set out by the Government until its reply brief in this Court. 
Before concluding that the Federal Government possesses
this authority, we should demand stronger statutory proof
than has been mustered to date. 

But even if the Federal Government has the authority to
require  the  vaccination  of  healthcare  workers,  it  did  not
have the authority to impose that requirement in the way