The US Supreme Court said on Wednesday it would hold a special session in early January to hear challenges to President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate policies.

The issues to be discussed are the administration's vaccine or testing requirement for large employers, and a separate vaccine requirement for healthcare workers.

The court had not been scheduled to hear cases again until January 10, but will make an exception to hold this session on January 7 next year. 

White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said the administration was confident that both the mandates held legal authority. She said in a statement that the justice department "will vigorously defend both at the Supreme Court."
The US is currently seeing a spike in cases of the omicron variant. 

Vaccine, testing and mask mandates

An appeals court on Friday allowed the workplace mandate, which covers more than 80 million American workers, to go into effect. Several businesses, states and other groups challenging the policy asked the Supreme Court to block it. 

The plan requires workers at larger companies to be vaccinated or wear face masks and get tested weekly. The court will have to decide whether the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has the authority to impose such a requirement.

The other case will include hearings over a rule by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid which requires their workers to receive the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by December 6 and be fully vaccinated by January 4. It could affect more than 17 million workers in the US. 

tg/msh  (AP, Reuters)