A New York Supreme Court justice declared Monday that the city’s vaccination requirement for all city employees is arbitrary, capricious, and unconstitutional, giving unvaccinated New York City workers a victory.
According to a report by The Daily Wire, about 2,000 municipal employees, including police officers and firefighters, were fired by Democratic Mayor Eric Adams of New York City earlier this year for defying the COVID vaccine requirement.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s quarantine and isolation recommendations apply to both vaccinated and unvaccinated people, the court said, adding that “being vaccinated does not prevent an individual from contracting or transmitting COVID-19.”
“The vaccine mandate for City employees was not just about safety and public health; it was about compliance,” Judge Ralph Porzio wrote in his ruling. “If it was about safety and public health, unvaccinated workers would have been placed on leave the moment the order was issued.”
The judgment was delivered outside the Richmond County Courthouse on Monday by attorney Chad LaVeglia, who said the judge had ruled the Health Commissioner’s mandate to be unconstitutional and in violation of the separation of powers.
“It’s null and void, essentially,” LaVeglia said in a video on the NYCforYourself Twitter account. “We just defeated the vaccine mandate for every single city employee.”
Among other city staff in various agencies, these workers included those from the Department of Education, New York Police Department, New York Fire Department, and the Department of Corrections.
“For all the brave men and women who have been our first responders and have been brave through all this are now free, and you should be able to go back to work,” he added.
#BREAKING Judge Strikes Down NYC Vaccine Mandate for City Workers. “It’s null and void,” says attorney @ChadLaveglia. “We just defeated the vaccine mandate for every single city employee.” pic.twitter.com/PqqjhfNNCq
— NYCforYourself (@nycforyourself) October 24, 2022
The New York State Supreme Court further decided on Monday that all workers who had been fired due to their vaccination status would be reinstated and receive compensation for the rights they had been denied.
FDNY-Fire Officers Association President Lt. James McCarthy and FDNY-Firefighters Association President Andrew Ansbro both told Fox News that their organizations are in favor of rescinding the vaccine requirement that city officials put in place earlier this year.
Officials from the FDNY Association criticized Mayor Adams earlier this year for excluding athletes and entertainers from the requirement, saying it should have applied to all New Yorkers.