In an effort to halt the explosion of Covid-19 Delta variant and spur economic recovery, President Biden ordered new federal requirements to vaccinate two thirds of workers in the country.

“There are a lot of great agricultural companies willing to play by the rules, but there are some that certainly fall short,” he told The Bee in an interview last week. “And so those are the circumstances, those are the issues that we need to address.

A state’s right to require vaccination has been settled law since a 1905 Supreme Court ruling that upheld compulsory smallpox vaccination in Massachusetts. Legal experts say that right has been upheld repeatedly, including in a 1990 Supreme Court decision that religiously motivated actions aren’t insulated from laws, unless a law singles out religion for disfavored treatment.