CHD Defeats NY Vaccine Mandate For Healthcare workers In Court
Yesterday New York Supreme Court Justice Gerard Neri struck down a New York State Department of Health (DOH) regulation that forced all healthcare workers to get COVID shots as a condition of employment. No shot, no job.
In a scathing decision, the Court described New York State’s arguments that it has the authority to impose a vaccine mandate while at the same time admitting that the vaccine does not stop transmission of the disease it is claimed to prevent as “Orwellian.” The Court also described other arguments made by the State as an “absurdity.”
The case was filed by Children’s Health Defense for a group of New York healthcare workers. Sujata Gibson is lead attorney. An appeal by the State is likely.
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The mandate was originally imposed by a New York State Department of Health (DOH) regulation forced through under Governor Andrew Cuomo.
A key argument the Court found persuasive is that the DOH, and by extension the Governor, simply does not have the legal authority to impose vaccine mandates. Earlier cases have found that power is limited to acts of legislation, and action by County Boards of Health, not regulations issued by a state agency. The Court said, “DOH blatantly violated the boundaries of its authority as set forth by the legislature.”
The Court also relied on the State’s admission that COVID shots do not stop transmission of the disease, stating, “Petitioners argue that there is no rational basis for the Mandate when Respondent DOH acknowledges the mandated vaccine fails to accomplish its stated goal, i.e., prevent the spread of COVID-19 (Court’s emphasis).” That admission by DOH led the Court to say, “In true Orwellian fashion, [New York State] acknowledge then-current COVID-19 shots do not prevent transmission.”
DOH argued that the requirement that healthcare workers get “fully vaccinated” means whatever the department decides it means. The Court, however, found, “a term which is defined at the whim of an entity, subject to change without a moment’s notice, contains all the hallmarks of ‘absurdity’ and is no definition at all.”
In summation the Court found, “the Mandate is arbitrary and capricious.” And ruled, “the Mandate 10 NYCRR Sec. 2.61, as being beyond the scope of Respondents’ (DOH) authority and is therefore null and void and of no effect, so that the Respondents, their agents, officers and employees are prohibited from implementing or enforcing the Mandate is GRANTED.”
This ruling follows a string of Federal and New York Court State decisions voiding mandates imposed by executive action. Yet in New York City, Mayor Eric Adams clings to the mandates used to fire thousands of city workers, and students at the State University of New York and the City University of New York are still required to get COVID shots to attend according to rules issued by their respective Boards of Trustees despite the State’s acknowledgement that the shot does not stop the transmission of COVID. These policies are beyond absurd and are no doubt motivated by reasons other than concerns for public health.
Read about the lawsuit here
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