Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/21a244_hgci.pdf
Page Number: 24.0

8  NATIONAL FEDERATION OF INDEPENDENT BUSINESS v. 

OSHA 
BREYER, J., dissenting 
BREYER, SOTOMAYOR, and KAGAN, JJ., dissenting 

only in workplaces but in many physical facilities (e.g., sta-
diums, schools, hotels, even homes).  See 29 CFR §1910.155
(2020) (fire); §§1910.302–1910.308 (electrical installations);
§§1910.34–1910.39 (exit routes).  Similarly, OSHA has reg-
ulated  to  reduce  risks  from  excessive  noise  and  unsafe 
drinking water—again, risks hardly confined to the work-
place.  See §1910.95 (noise); §1910.141 (water).  A biological
hazard—here,  the  virus  causing  COVID–19—is  no  differ-
ent.  Indeed, Congress just last year made this clear.  It ap-
propriated $100 million for OSHA “to carry out COVID–19
related worker protection activities” in work environments 
of  all  kinds.  American  Rescue  Plan  Act  of  2021,  Pub.  L. 
117–2, 135 Stat. 30.  That legislation refutes the majority’s
view that workplace exposure to COVID–19 is somehow not 
a workplace hazard.  Congress knew—and Congress said—
that  OSHA’s  responsibility  to  mitigate  the  harms  of 
COVID–19 in the typical workplace do not diminish just be-
cause the disease also endangers people in other settings. 
That  is  especially  so  because—as  OSHA  amply  estab-
lished—COVID–19 poses special risks in most workplaces, 
across the country and across industries.  See 86 Fed. Reg.
61424 (“The likelihood of transmission can be exacerbated
by common characteristics of many workplaces”).  The ma-
jority  ignores  these  findings,  but  they  provide  more-than-
ample  support  for  the  Standard.    OSHA  determined  that 
the  virus  causing  COVID–19  is  “readily  transmissible  in
workplaces  because  they  are  areas  where  multiple  people 
come into contact with one another, often for extended pe-
riods  of  time.”    Id.,  at 61411.    In other  words,  COVID–19 
spreads more widely in workplaces than in other venues be-
cause  more  people  spend  more  time  together  there.  And 
critically,  employees  usually  have  little  or  no  control  in 
those settings.  “[D]uring the workday,” OSHA explained,
“workers  may  have  little  ability  to  limit  contact  with 
coworkers,  clients,  members  of  the  public,  patients,  and