The Justice Department on Tuesday asked a federal court for an emergency ruling to lift the court-imposed stay that blocked the Biden administration from proceeding with its Covid mask, testing and vaccination rules for large employers.

The rules, published by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Nov. 5, were stayed by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals the next day. Part of the court’s reasoning was that OSHA is limited by law to addressing workplace hazards, while Covid exists everywhere.

That’s an error, the administration said in its emergency filing, asserting, “Congress charged OSHA with addressing grave dangers in the workplace, without any carve-out for viruses or dangers that also happen to exist outside the workplace.”