DeSantis says Roberts and Kavanaugh lacked 'backbone' in ruling on vaccine mandate for health care workers

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MSNBC's Joy Reid rants against Supreme Court for striking down Biden vaccine mandate: 'Right-wing ideologues'

MSNBC host Joy Reid had much to say Thursday when it came to the Supreme Court's decision to block President Biden's coronavirus vaccine mandate, launching a rant against, what she referred to as, the "right-wing ideologues" occupying six of the court's nine seats.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis knocked Supreme Court Justices John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh for lacking a "backbone" in their decision on the Biden administration's vaccine mandate for certain health care workers. 

The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the health care worker mandate to go into effect but blocked enforcement of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) mandate for businesses with 100 or more employees. Justices Roberts and Kavanaugh sided with the liberal justices on the health care worker mandate. 

DeSantis slammed them both during a guest appearance on the popular conservative podcast "Ruthless" that aired Friday. 

"On the nurse mandate and the doctor mandate, Roberts and Kavanaugh joined with the liberals to allow the nurse mandate," DeSantis said to a booing crowd.

SUPREME COURT BLOCKS BIDEN OSHA VACCINE MANDATE, ALLOWS RULE FOR HEALTH CARE WORKERS

Gov. Ron DeSantis in a November 2018 file photo.  (REUTERS/Carlo Allegri)

"So here’s what’s going on, think about how insane this is," he continued. "Now, in Florida, we protected the nurses, so we have people that are working. But in other states, they fired nurses who were not vaccinated."

DeSantis noted that some hospitals, such as in California, are so short-staffed that they're now allowing vaccinated but COVID-positive employees to go back to work. 

"So they have COVID-positive people back on, meanwhile the unvaccinated, likely immune through prior infection, healthy nurses are on the sidelines fired," the Sunshine State governor continued. "How insane are these policies?"

Chief Justice John Roberts sits during a group photo of the Justices at the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on April 23, 2021.  (Erin Schaff-Pool/Getty Images)

"But honestly, Roberts and Kavanaugh did not have a backbone on that decision," DeSantis also said. "That's just the bottom line." 

DeSantis also vowed to enforce Florida’s protections for nurses amid the health care worker vaccine mandate.

DeSantis lauded his administration’s response to the vaccine mandates in his "Ruthless" appearance, saying his state "didn’t necessarily wait for the courts" when pushing back against Biden’s vaccine mandate for American companies with over 100 employees.

"I called a special session of the legislature in November and we provided protections so that, in Florida, you’re not going to lose your job over these shots," DeSantis said in the podcast. "You have the right to work."

The Florida governor called the OSHA vaccine mandate ruling a "no-brainer" and said that "anybody who’s not a far-left jurist was going to come out that way."

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The OSHA mandate had gone into effect on Monday and had required businesses with at least 100 employees to require workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or wear a mask while going through weekly testing.

The court ruled that OSHA lacked the authority to impose such a mandate because the law that created OSHA "empowers the Secretary to set workplace safety standards, not broad public health measures."

Fox Business’ Ronn Blitzer and Tyler O’Neil contributed reporting.