City government workers in the District can no longer be punished for choosing not to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a D.C. Superior Court judge who effectively threw out the COVID-19 vaccine mandate that applied to all D.C. employees.
Judge Maurice Ross ruled Thursday that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser didn’t have the legal authority to implement the mandate in the first place, saying that Bowser is now “permanently enjoined from implementing, imposing, and/or enforcing the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.”
The mayor’s office issued the following statement Friday morning:
We are reviewing the Court’s ruling, and believe that the judge misunderstood the strength and diversity of the authorities we relied upon in issuing the employee vaccination mandate. Over the past year and a half, we have seen that COVID-19 vaccines work — they keep people out of the hospital and save lives. We are grateful for all residents and employees who stepped up and got vaccinated, whether they did so with no reservations or whether they did so nervously but because they knew it was the right thing to do. Because of our collective effort, countless lives have been saved. Going forward, we will comply with the Court’s orders as we continue encouraging our community to access life-saving vaccines.”
The judge’s ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed earlier this year by the D.C. police union which argued that police officers should not be required to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.
In a statement, the union’s chairman Gregg Pemberton called the ruling a “significant victory” that “protects the rights of our members and ensures that they will no longer be forced to receive the COVID-19 vaccine against their will.”
“Now, all of our members can go back to doing the necessary work of trying to protect our communities from crime and violence without unlawful threats of discipline and termination,” Pemberton said.
The judge specifically ruled that members of the police department must be reimbursed if they lost any pay due to disciplinary actions related to the mandate.
The mandate required city government employees to show proof that they were vaccinated against COVID-19.
Employees who didn’t have a religious or medical exemption faced disciplinary measures which included a written reprimand, suspension or even termination.
Police departments around the U.S. that require officers to get vaccinated against COVID-19 have run up against pockets of resistance.
In New York City, a police detective asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the city from firing him and other workers for refusing to get vaccinated.
Lawyers for Detective Anthony Marciano asked the court Thursday for an emergency injunction that would block the city from enforcing a rule requiring all municipal employees to get vaccinated.
More than 1,000 New York City employees have been fired for refusing the vaccine.
Health authorities say the COVID-19 vaccines approved for use in the United States are safe, and recommend vaccination even among people who have acquired some immunity from previous infections.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
