Eight students have sued the Indiana University board of trustees for requiring students to be vaccinated against the coronavirus or risk being removed from the student body, claiming the vaccine requirement violates their Constitutional right under the Fourteenth Amendment, USA Today reports.

The Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the government from “depriv[ing] any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”  The lawsuit also cites the ban on government-issued so-called “vaccine passports” passed by the Indiana state government, although that law specifically excludes the state’s universities from the law.  The university, however, simply requires students to fill out a self-reported vaccination verification form and upload proof of vaccination; it doesn’t not require students obtain or carry any paperwork, government-issued or otherwise.

All student and faculty are required to have full vaccinations prior to August 15th, prior to returning to campus for the fall semester.  Full vaccination means having both doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine two weeks prior to the required date.

According to the university website, any student or staff member who does not have the vaccination certification completed by the required date will not be allowed access on campus.  “For students, they will see their class registration cancelled, CrimsonCard access terminated, access to IU systems (Canvas, email, etc.) terminated, and will not be allowed to participate in any on campus activity.”

Of the eight plaintiffs, six had already received religious exemptions for the vaccine under university policy; two applied for the exemption but did not qualify.  The lawyer for the plaintiffs is James Bopp of Focus On The Family and the National Right To Life Coalition, who is arguing hypocritically that the students have a sovereign right to determine what happens with their individual bodies without interference or mandates from the government.

Bopp is not arguing the existing mandate from the university that students must have other vaccines for diseases such as measles, rubella, mumps, tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis (TDap), varicella and meningitis.  His concern seems to revolve only around the coronavirus.