Monday May 13th: The federal district court for the Southern District of New York dismissed a challenge to New York City’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate in Sutton v. Adams. Sutton, a former employee of the City of New York, was fired after refusing to comply with the City’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all employees. The plaintiff alleged that the City violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause because the City enforced the mandate more strictly against public employees than employees of private employers. However, the court rejected this argument, stating that City employees are not a protected class, and past precedent establishes that refusing vaccination is not a fundamental right. Therefore, the rational basis standard applied. Under this standard, the court dismissed the case, holding that the City’s vaccine mandate was rationally related to protecting the public from COVID-19 in City buildings, a compelling government interest.
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