Sotomayor denied a challenge by four teachers and teaching assistants who sought to halt enforcement of the vaccine mandate, while his lawsuit challenging the policy continues in lower courts. Public school system employees were ordered to be vaccinated by 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) on Friday or placed on unpaid leave until September 2022.
Some governments and private employers have adopted vaccine mandates to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace as they try to return to some degree of normalcy after disruptions related to the coronavirus pandemic that began last year. Such mandates have become a flash point in the United States, with opponents including those in New York City saying their constitutional rights were being violated. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, announced on August 23 that all 148,000 employees in the largest US school district must submit proof of at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The deadline was extended to October 1 after a lower court temporarily blocked the measure – after an order was removed.
About 1 million students attend the city’s public schools.
Sotomayor denied the emergency request without providing any explanation or referring the matter to a nine-member full court. His decision was mirrored in August negating a bid by Justice Amy Connie Barrett. 12 by Indiana University students for blocking that school’s vaccine mandate.
Sotomayor handled the case for the Supreme Court as he has been assigned justice to deal with emergency requests arising from cases in a region’s states, including New York.
De Blasio said in a television interview Friday that 90% of the city’s education department staff had already been vaccinated with at least one dose, including 93% of teachers and 98% of school principals.
New York teachers filed a proposed class action lawsuit in Brooklyn federal court last month, claiming the vaccine mandate violates their rights to due process and equal protections under the law under the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.
The teachers said the mandate interferes with their freedom to pursue their chosen profession and discriminates against them as other municipal workers may opt out by taking weekly Covid-19 tests.
One of the plaintiffs, Rachel Manscalco, who teaches in the city’s borough of Staten Island, expressed concerns about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, while the other plaintiffs argue they should be waived because they have a prior There are antibodies to covid-19 infection.
A federal judge and the Manhattan-based Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the teachers’ bid to withhold the mandate, prompting their appeal to the Supreme Court.
Defending the mandate in the lower court, the city said courts have long held that the vaccine mandate does not violate constitutional rights.
“Frankly speaking, plaintiffs do not have the right to teach children without vaccination for a dangerous infectious disease,” the city’s lawyers said.
.