Join Amazon Prime for exclusive deals, fast shipping, and endless entertainment! Sign up now!
The cherry on top is that back pay must also be issued. The New York Supreme Court repeated that President Biden said the pandemic is over. A lawsuit had been filed against a number of departments including the City of New York, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Department of Sanitation, the Commissioner of that Department David Chokshi and Mayor Eric Adams.
The New York court said this wasn’t right
It stated,
“Though vaccination should be encouraged, public employees should not have been terminated for their noncompliance. Based upon the Petitioners’ vague denials of their exemptions, the fact they were kept at full duty for several months while their exemptions were pending, the Mayor’s Executive Order granting exemptions to certain classes of people, and the lifting of the private sector mandate, this Court finds the Commissioners Orders of October 20, 2021, and December 13, 2021, as well as the Mayor’s Executive Order No. 62 to be arbitrary and capricious.”
The petitioners of the lawsuit were former Department of Sanitation employees that were let go February 2022. In question was mayor Adams’ Executive Order Number 62 which carved out exemptions based on arbitrary circumstances such as for athletes, performers and artists.
The New York executive order
The court wrote about the order,
“There is nothing in the record to support the rationality of keeping a vaccination mandate for public employees, while vacating the mandate for private sector employees or creating a carveout for certain professions, like athletes, artists, and performers. This is clearly an arbitrary and capricious action because we are dealing with identical unvaccinated people being treated differently by the same administrative agency.”
All but one of the petitioners applied for an exemption. The court wondered why the city couldn’t keep its vaccine and test policy. Why were mandates issued the way they were?
The New York vaccine mandate
Was ruled as being ridiculous. The court stated,
“The Court finds that in light of the foregoing, the vaccination mandates for public employees and private employees is arbitrary and capricious. There was nothing demonstrated in the record as to why there was a vaccine mandate issued for only public employees in October 2021. This Court noted that Covid-29 rates were averaging under 1,500 per day in October 2021, significantly lower than today’s average Covid-19 rates. There was nothing demonstrated in the record as to why the private sector mandate was issued months later in December 2021.”
The court was okay with temporary vaccine mandates in a public health emergency, just enforce it evenly. Only a portion of the population was targeted for an unknown period of time. The court concluded with,
“Being vaccinated does not prevent an individual from contracting or transmitting Covid-19. As of the day of this Decision, CDC guidelines regarding quarantine and isolation are the same for vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. The Petitioners should not have been terminated for choosing not to protect themselves. We have learned through the course of the pandemic that the vaccine against Covid-19 is not absolute. breakthrough cases occur, even for those who have been vaccinated and boosted. President Joseph Biden has said that the pandemic is over. The State of New York ended the Covid-19 state of emergency over a month ago.”
