Private and public employers will want to reconsider imposing a vaccine mandate the next time a public health crisis occurs. A federal court just ruled against the constitutionality of COVID-19 vaccine mandates — and the ruling is liable to reach well beyond the 2020 coronavirus outbreak.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (one rung below the U.S. Supreme Court) ruled the Los Angeles United School District (LAUSD), which required teachers and other employees to get the COVID-19 jab “or lose their jobs interfered with their fundamental right to refuse medical treatment.” The 9th Circuit reversed a lower court’s ruling in Health Freedom Defense Fund (HFDF) v. Alberto Carvalho [superintendent of LAUSD].
What it means: The ruling is, for all intents and purposes, the law of the land — at least for the time being. Similar cases are working their way through the courts in other regions of the U.S. No doubt the HFDF ruling will embolden groups who believe they were harmed by vaccine mandates in employers’ COVID-19 policies to keep the litigation ball rolling.
The 9th Circuit covers Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington state. Plaintiffs suing employers over mandatory vaccine mandates in other regions of the country can cite HFDF and reasonably expect to win their grievances in municipal and state courts. Caveat: An opposite ruling down the road by, let’s say, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, would mean a loss for plaintiffs suing in Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.
The U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) could eventually weigh in on the constitutionality of vaccine mandates but it’s hardly a certainty. At least four judges on the High Court must want to reject in full, correct in part, or amplify a lower court’s ruling for a hearing to be granted. SCOTUS typically hears 1% of 7,000-plus petitions every year.
COVID Vaccine Policy Went Too Far, Court Rules
LAUSD implemented its stringent mandate in March 2021 as various COVID-19 vaccines were coming to market. The district kept the “take the jab or lose your job” policy in place for about two years. It withdrew its policy at one point under legal pressure, but then reinstated it, and kept the policy in place until after oral arguments in the case were made before 9th Circuit judges.
Note: SCOTUS recently vacated three lower court decisions on COVID-19 vaccine mandates because the employers had rescinded their policies. SCOTUS ruled those decisions as moot. LAUSD attempted to argue its policy was moot but failed to sway the 9th Circuit judges.
LAUSD employees who complied with the policy under duress, or refused to get the shots altogether, argued their 14th Amendment rights were violated. The 14th Amendment reads, in part: “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the U.S.”
Lawyers representing LAUSD cited argued a SCOTUS ruling from 1905 (Jacobson v. Massachusetts) validated the legality of its policy. The Jacobson case centered on the city of Cambridge’s move to fine residents who refused to be inoculated against smallpox. No threats of potential loss of employment (or worse) were made.
The 9th Circuit didn’t mince words on the school district’s policy — or the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines for that matter: “Jacobson held that mandatory vaccinations were rationally related to preventing the spread of smallpox. … [LAUSD employees] allege that the vaccine does not effectively prevent spread but only mitigates symptoms for the recipient and therefore is akin to a medical treatment, not a ‘traditional’ vaccine. Taking plaintiffs’ allegations as true at this stage of litigation, plaintiffs plausibly alleged that the COVID-19 vaccine does not effectively ‘prevent the spread’ of COVID-19.”
Court Clarifies the Definition of a Vaccine
The Jacobson ruling famously gave government (and in some cases, private employers) leeway to mandate vaccinations. The 9th Circuit concludes that LAUSD misapplied the ruling in Jacobson because the smallpox vaccine stopped the spread of the deadly virus. Health studies and the data of outbreaks in the early 20th century continue to back that fact more than a century later.
Other types of vaccines don’t sterilize — from annual flu shots to the hepatitis B vaccine to injected polio. Many of these shots don’t meet the definition of a vaccine in place until September 2021 when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention struck the word “immunity.” The HFDF plaintiffs presented the CDC decision as evidence in its favor, as well as the CDC admitting in print the COVID-19 vaccine didn’t prevent transmission.
Bottom line: LAUSD and tens of thousands of other employers enacted COVID-19 policies. The school district made two critical mistakes that companies can’t afford to make:
- threatening employees with termination for failing to take a vaccination, and
- refusing to grant employees religious or 14th Amendment-related exemptions.
