Can anyone explain how the Supreme Court parsed their two decisions?

Set aside the vax/anti-vax mandate/anti-mandate mask/anti-mask rhetoric. Plenty of other threads for that. Let's focus on the simple question of how OSHA, in which Congress has passed a law instructing them to assure that major employers have safe work sites, CANNOT mandate COVID precautions, but NIH, which Congress authorized to buy health services through Medicare/Medicaid, CAN mandate vaccines & masks. What distinction are they drawing? Or were they just looking to punt with a mixed decision? Particularly since we're only talking about a stay until the lower courts resolve the actual lawsuits involving the OSHA Mandate.

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Northwest · M

I really can't. I understand why they would have quashed both, on the same basis, but not only one.

The majority opinion was unsigned. It said the administration likely didn’t have the unilateral power to impose a mandate that employers ensure their workers were vaccinated. The decision was 6-3.

It reflects the court's conservative majority's skepticism of federal regulatory power exercised without specific and explicit congressional authorization. But this applies to healthcare workers as well.