NY Mandate Case: Supreme Court
NY Mandate Case: Supreme Court
Re: the Legality of Mandating Vaccines to City Employees
Facts of the Case
- Dates: 2021-Oct 2022
- Location: New York City
- Court: Supreme Court of NY
- Case #: 85163/2022
- Plaintiff: NY Sanitation Workers
- Plaintiff’s Lawyer: Chad LaVeglia
- Defendant: City of NY, DOHMH, Dept of Sanitation & NY Mayor Adams
- Trial Type: Supreme Court of NY
- Judge: Ralph J. Porzio
- Status: Decided (Oct 24 2022)
- Verdict: for the Plaintiff
*updated Oct 27, 2022
Background
One year ago in October 2021, New York City enacted a Covid vaccine mandate which required all city staff to show proof that they obtained at least one jab. Employees who did not comply by Oct. 29 were subject to termination. [1]
Despite the fact that they continued to work full-time for nearly four months after the mandate began, the unvaccinated plaintiffs were fired in February 2022 after they received “generalized and vague denials” of their shot exemptions. [1]
Mayor Eric Adams expanded the mandate to private sector employees in December 2021 [1] and then backtracked on March 24, 2022, Mayor Adams enacted Executive Order No. 62, which provided blanket exemptions from the private employers’ vaccine mandate for athletes, performers, and other artists [2]
Nearly 1,500 New York City workers including police officers lost their jobs due to the city’s discriminatory jab mandate. Hundreds of others left their places of employment after being forced to choose between their job and their autonomy. [1]
As a result, thousands of New Yorkers protested the state’s medical coercion of state workers, health-care workers, and teachers. They also expressed frustration with the city’s attempt to force businesses to require verified “vaccine passports” in exchange for goods and services when there was no proof that the shot prevented virus spread, something the court acknowledged in its ruling. [1]
According to the court filing, the Department of Sanitation employees were terminated in February 2022 for “failure to comply with vaccination requirements” after the health commissioner of the City of New York, David Chokshi, issued a vaccination mandate requiring all city employees to show “proof of at least one dose of vaccination against COVID-19” by Oct. 29. [2]
Significance
This case has the potential to undo every vaccine mandate across the USA and to expose the faulty science behind covid injections.
Plaintiff’s Argument
“The petitioner’s central argument is that Mayor Adam’s Executive Order #62, the private exemption order, rendered the public employee vaccination mandate arbitrary and capricious or unconstitutional. Furthermore, the Petitioners all claim, and provided lab documentation, that they have natural immunity to Covid19 from prior infection(s).” [4]
Defendant’s Argument
“The Respondent’s central argument is that the private employers’ exemption order and the public employee vaccination mandates were “created separately and exist independently of each other.” [4]
Relevant Prior Judgements/ Cases
…More information is needed…
Decision
The sixteen New York City Department of Sanitation workers were reinstated to full employment and will receive more than eight months of back pay after the New York Supreme Court ruled that they were wrongfully terminated under the city’s “arbitrary and capricious” Covid jab mandate. [1]
Porzio’s ruling states that the Oct. 20, 2021, and Dec. 13, 2021, rulings from the commissioner of health and mental hygiene ordering that all employees get vaccinated are “arbitrary and capricious,” ordering that the petitioners be reinstated to their full employment status, and entitled to back pay in salary from date of termination. [2]
Judge Ralph J. Porzio wrote in his ruling that the vaccination mandate for city employees was “not just about safety and public health; it was about compliance.” [2]
“that if the vaccine mandate was about “safety and public health, unvaccinated workers would have been placed on leave the moment the order was issued.” [2]
“If it was about safety and public health, the Health Commissioner would have issued city-wide mandates for vaccination for all residents,” he continued. “In a City with a nearly 80% vaccination rate, we shouldn’t be penalizing the people who showed up to work, at great risk to themselves and their families, while we were locked down.” [2]
“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,” the court wrote. “This is clearly an arbitrary and capricious action because we are dealing with identical unvaccinated people being treated differently by the same administrative agency.” [1]
The court also acknowledged that because the plaintiffs had natural immunity against Covid thanks to prior infections, and determined that because the city’s Board of Health “does not have the authority to unilaterally and indefinitely change the terms of employment for any agency,” the sanitation workers were wrongfully terminated. [1]
“This Court does not have a basis to disagree with temporary vaccination orders during a public health emergency, however, ordering and enforcing that vaccination policy on only a portion of the populace for an indefinite period of time, is akin to legislating,” the court wrote, noting that “states of emergency are meant to be temporary.” [1]
“Being vaccinated does not prevent an individual from contracting or transmitting Covid-19,” the court acknowledged. “The petitioners should not have been terminated for choosing not to protect themselves. We have learned through the course of this pandemic that the vaccine against Covid-19 is not absolute.” [1]
The court found that “being vaccinated does not prevent an individual from contracting or transmitting COVID-19,” adding that vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals have the same quarantine and isolation guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [3]
“It is time for New York to do what is right and what is just,” Porzio concluded. [3]
Aftermath
Response from the Plaintiffs
“Yesterday marked a historic victory for sanitation workers, all the brave NYC employees who serve the public and our representative democracy,” attorney Chad LaVeglia told The Daily Signal. “The court struck down NYC’s draconian, arbitrary, vaccine mandate on multiple constitutional and legal grounds. The thousands of city employees who were ignored now have a voice. And as the court recognized, they deserve better.” [2]
“The court also recognized a commonsense principle that has somehow eluded politicians like Eric Adams: Forcing one—and only one—segment of the population to get vaccinated during a worldwide outbreak is unconstitutional and arbitrary,” he added. “Sixteen sanitation workers fought back against tyranny. And won. This is a historic victory for individual rights, and the system of government mandated by the Constitution.” [2]
“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.” [3]
Such employees included workers from the Department of Education, New York Police Department, New York Fire Department, and the Department of Corrections — among other city staff in various departments. [3]
“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. [3]
Response from the Defendant
“The city strongly disagrees with this ruling as the mandate is firmly grounded in law and is critical to New Yorkers’ public health,” a New York Law Department spokesman said on Tuesday. “We have already filed an appeal. In the meantime, the mandate remains in place as this ruling pertains solely to the individual petitioners in this case. We continue to review the court’s decision, which conflicts with numerous other rulings already upholding the mandate.” [2]
Response from FDNY-Firefighters
FDNY-Firefighters Association President Andrew Ansbro and FDNY-Fire Officers Association President Lt. James McCarthy told Fox News that the groups support revoking the vaccine mandate implemented by city officials earlier this year. [3]
FDNY Association officials blasted Mayor Adams earlier this year for exempting athletes and performers from the mandate, adding it should have been extended to all New Yorkers. [3]
“We support the revocation of the mandate for the athletes and performers that work in New York City,” McCarthy said. “We think that the people that work for New York City should also have the mandate relocated for them.” [3]
Ansbro said if Adams removed the vaccine mandate for certain people, “you need to remove it for everybody in the city.” [3]
“If you’re gonna follow the science, science is gonna tell you there isn’t any danger right now and putting hundreds of firefighters, police officers, and other emergency workers out of work is not in the best interest of the city. It’s not safe,” Ansbro said. [3]
Further Research
Court Documents:
In the news:
Media
References
- New York Supreme Court Reinstates NYC Workers Fired Under ‘Arbitrary And Capricious’ Covid Jab Mandate
- New York Supreme Court Reinstates Unvaccinated Employees With Back Pay: ‘It Was About Compliance’
- New York Supreme Court Strikes Down NYC Vaccine Mandate for All City Workers; Reinstates Employees, Orders Back Pay
- Court Ruling
Keyword
Adams, CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of, DOHMH, Executive Order, Health, LaVeglia, Mandate, Mayor, Mental Hygiene, New York, NY, Porzio, Sanitation, Supreme Court, Unconstitutional, Workers