Thousands Of NY City Workers Could Lose Their Jobs For Refusing To Get The Coronavirus Vaccine – Forbes

Protestors opposed to Covid-19 vaccine mandates and vaccine passports by the government rally at ... [+] City Hall in New York City.

In 2021, then-Mayor Bill de Blasioenacted a series of coronavirus vaccine mandates. In July 2021, heannounced a vaccine mandate for city workers. And in December 2021, heexpanded the vaccine mandate to private-sector workers, too.

But starting January 1, 2022, New York City gota new mayor, Eric Adams. Mayor Adams has decided to keep in place former Mayor de Blasios vaccine mandate for city workers. This includes the February 11, 2022deadline to getinoculated.

Most of New Yorks city workers have gotten vaccinated, but a few thousand have not and risk losing their jobs.

New York Citys Authority to Impose the Coronavirus Vaccine Mandate

When it comes to a state or citys legal authority to impose vaccination requirements, the law is fairly well settled. Going back more than a hundred years, the U.S. Supreme Court has confirmed the authority of local governments to require its citizens to get vaccinated.

The two key casesestablishing this precedentareJacobson v. Massachusetts(from 1905) andZucht v. King(from 1922). And although the legal theories have changed somewhat since then, the overall premise of local government authority to enforce vaccine mandates is still solid law. Morerecent caseshave cometosimilar legal conclusions.However, one of the current legal questions still up to debate is the implementation ofreligious exemptions.

How Religious Exemptions Work

TheFirst Amendmentto the United States Constitution prohibits governments fromenacting laws that wouldestablish a religion or infringeon an individualsfree exercise of religion. Its this latter right that applies to religious exemptions to vaccine mandates.

The premise of someone requesting a religious exemption to a vaccine requirement is that it goes against their religious beliefs. The vast majority of religions commonly practiced in the United Statesdo not have religious tenets thatare against vaccines. Despite this, the sincerity of someones religious beliefs as theyrelate to getting vaccinated isnt usually the primary issue of contention in court.

Instead, the focus is more often on the applicability of a particular legal argument, such as whether the vaccine requirement is universally applied. Why does this matter? Because it can change how the court will approach the legality of the vaccination law.

Courts referred to these approaches as levels of judicial review. The basic idea is that the more compelling the reason the government has for a law that could restrict someones religious beliefs,and the more tailored that law is to limitingany infringement on someones religious rights, the more likely a court will uphold the law.

So if a law is universally applied to all individuals (regardless of their religious beliefs),and the government has a really good reason for enacting that law,a court will use a level of judicial review that makes it more likely the law stands.

But if a law only focuses on a particular religion or religious practice,and/or the governments reasonsfor the law arent very important,then courts will use a level of judicial review that makes it more likely the law gets struck down.

So how does this apply to vaccine mandates?Based onprior case law, its possible that a vaccine mandate that only offers a medical exemption willnotbe considered a law of universal applicability. This is because those with medical reasons can get an exemption while thosewithreligious reasonscannot. So unless thegovernment cangive a good reason forthis discrepancy, then courts will use a higher level of judicial review making iteasier to strike down the law on First Amendment grounds.

Fortunately for Mayor Adams, the NYC vaccine mandate for city workers offers both medical and religious exemptions.Therefore, itll be difficult to oppose the New York City vaccine mandate for city workers based on this universal applicability argument.

According to theNew York Times, roughly13,000 exemptions requestsfrom New York City workershave been submitted.About 2,000 have been approved, about 5,000 have beendenied and the rest are still being processed.

Another Legal Optionfor City Workers Who Refuse the Vaccine

Several New York City unionsfiled a lawsuitearlier this week challenging the potential firingsof their members. Specifically, they argue that summarily firing employees for not complying with the vaccine requirement would be a violation of theirdue process rightsbecause theyre being terminated without following the properprocedures.

However, the city argues that getting fired for not getting vaccinated is not a form of workplacediscipline and is instead a condition of employment.As a result,the summary dismissals would not be a violation of the workers due process rights.

Bottom Line

A citys right to require its workers to get vaccinated is well-settled law. Most legal challenges to worker vaccine mandates at the local level have been unsuccessful.

Two potential legal arguments against New York Citys vaccine mandate for workers could attack the law based on religious freedom and due process grounds. Butbecausethevaccinelaw has been set up so that the vaccine requirement is a condition of employment and provides both medical and religious exemptions, its unclear how successful these arguments will be.

View post:

Thousands Of NY City Workers Could Lose Their Jobs For Refusing To Get The Coronavirus Vaccine - Forbes