few weeks
there have been quite a few updates regarding the national fight against vaccine mandates
because while most of the country has just sort of moved on the reality
is that for a span of about two years workers in various fields across America were
fired because they refused to get the shot
however now many of these workers have filed lawsuits against the relevant government agencies
who are responsible for the mandates
and because the justice system works rather slowly in the country
some of these lawsuits are only now beginning to actually get resolved let's go
through some of them together
starting with the one over in New Jersey to give you a bit of backstory here
in the early part of 20 22 the governor of New Jersey
Mr Phil Murray he's a Democrat
he issued an executive order regarding vaccine compliance in the state
specifically executive order number 2 8 3 said among several other things the following quote
unvaccinated healthcare workers must obtain their first dose of the
primary series of a COVID 19 vaccination by January 27th 20 22 all covered
workers must provide adequate proof
that they are up to date with their COVID 19 c in vaccination by
February 28 of 20 22
covered workers who are not up to date with their vaccinations or for whom
vaccination status is unknown or who have not provided sufficient proof of documentation
must be considered non compliant for purposes of this order and indeed just like many other
states across the nation New Jersey implemented this vaccine mandate and they began to enforce it
in the process firing off many medical staff who refused to get the shot
and so amidst this general backdrop four New Jersey based nurses filed
a lawsuit against the governors office
arguing that these mandates violate several of their constitutionally protected rights
the mandate violates the liberty and privacy rights protected by the Fourteenth
Amendment to the US Constitution
including the right to refuse medical procedures and the right to not
be medically surveilled by government actors
it also violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
and the Fourth Amendment prohibition of unreasonable search and seizure and the
procedure al Due Process Clause
furthermore the nurses argued that although the executive order did technically allow for religious
and medical exemptions in practice well that was not what was happening
instead the nurses wrote in their case quote executive order 2 83 requires COVID settings to
allow for medical and religious exemptions to vaccination
however the state of New Jersey itself has mass denied religious exemptions in state institutions
stating that accommodating people with religious exemptions would constitute an undue Burden on the state
because the employees with religious objections to the COVID 19 injections are a threat
to the safety of others
and so this was the general argument being made by these nurses
however the US District Court in this particular case he ruled against them saying
in part that they quote
fail to demonstrate likelihood of success on the merits of their claim that the executive orders
violate their liberty rights under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and also
they fail to demonstrate immediate and irreparable injury now how exactly it
is that losing your job
fails to qualify as an immediate and irreparable injury while that's anyone's guess
but regardless that is how the lower court ruled which is frankly not that uncommon
many of these mandate cases they get thrown out in the lower court before getting appealed
which is exactly what happened these four nurses they filed an appeal with the
Third Circuit Court of appeals
however here's where things you can say get a little bit weird in this particular case
because as the appeals process was playing itself out vaccine mandates and
other states began to fall
with the courts in several other states forcing the employers
to rehire those who have been fired as well as issue them back pay
and so perhaps seeing the writing on the wall in April of this year
which is again right in the middle of the appeals process
Governor Phil Murphy the governor of New Jersey he issued a new executive order
lifting the vaccine mandate for healthcare workers
and the official reason for why he did this at least according to the
governor is because it quotes
aligns the state of New Jersey with recent updates to federal requirements and reflects
our different circumstances now as compared to the past few years
this made it such that the vaccine mandate at issue in this particular case was cancelled
and several months later the US Third Circuit Court of appeals they
dismissed the nurse's case altogether
declaring that their lawsuit was now a mood point given the fact that the New Jersey
Governor decided to rescind the mandate
however the nurses did not stop here that's because even though in this particular
case the mandate was done away with
they wanted to establish a concrete legal precedent for the future
and as such the nurses filed an appeal all the way up
with the US Supreme Court
asking the highest court throughout their whole country to take up the case
and clarify for the whole nation what powers a governor does and does not have in
regard to any future vaccine mandate
specifically the nurses argued that regardless of what the lower court in this particular case said
quote the vaccine mandate violated their rights under the Fourth Amendment to the constitution
which encompasses their right to refuse to get a medical procedure and the right to privacy
they also said the rule violated the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause
however after considering the case for several months
just yesterday the US Supreme Court released an unsigned order saying that they will
not be taking up the case as you can see it up un screened for yourself
the order simply says that the petition for review has been denied
and it really is worth mentioning
that this is not the first time that the US Supreme Court has had the opportunity
but has also decided to not
take up a challenge to vaccine mandates for instance quote back in 20 22
the court declined to hear a challenge by Missouri and nine other states
to President Joe Biden's COVID 19 mandate that had been issued for
healthcare facilities that get federal funds
that particular mandate was later rescinded as the public health emergency ended earlier this year and
so because of their refusal to take up this new case out of New Jersey
well the question of whether or not American governors have the authority to implement
vaccine mandates in the future well that is still up in the air
regardless though as we alluded to earlier in the episode
when you look at it on a state by state basis aside from the reluctance by
the US Supreme Court when you look at its state by state the various
vaccine mandates have been getting clawed back
with many of them with many of the disenfranchised workers actually receiving compensation in the form
of back pay as well as forced rehiring
for instance in a separate case over in New York City a judge ruled
back in September which was just two months ago that quote
the employees who sued the city which were fired by the New York City Department of
education for refusing the COVID 19 vaccine must be reinstated with pay in that particular case
the New York State Supreme Court Judge he ruled that New York City's denial
of religious accommodations was capricious
it was arbitrary and it was illegal here's part of what he wrote in his order
this court sees no rational basis for not allowing unvaccinated classroom teachers in amongst
an admitted population of primarily unvaccinated students
as such the decision to summarily deny the classroom teachers amongst the panel practitioners based on
an undue hardship without any further evidence of individualized analysis is arbitrary capricious and unreasonable
as such each classroom teacher amongst the panel petitioners
is entitled to a religious exemption from the vaccine mandate likewise there was a case over
in the state of Illinois where in you had a group of about 500 healthcare workers
file a lawsuit against one of the big health systems in the state alleging that the
system would not grant them religious exemption
and the Illinois court ruled in favor of the employees awarding them a cool
ten million dollar legal settlement and you have similar cases playing themselves out across
the entirety of this country
however the US Supreme Court well they have once again passed on this opportunity
to take up this particular type of case a vaccine mandate case
leaving the door open for more vaccine mandates sometime in future if
another pandemic were to be declared
if you'd like to go through any of the cases that we discussed in
today's episode including the details of the case that came out of New Jersey
I'll throw all my research notes down in the description box below this video for you
to peruse at your own Leisure and then until next time I'm your host Roman from
the Epoch Times stay informed most important