In another one of these “Didn’t we already go through this this before?” another federal judge rejected a request for a temporary restraining order on the state of Washington’s coronavirus vaccine mandate, the Associated Press reports.
Firefighters, state police officers and other state workers filed the lawsuit against Democratic Governor Jay Inslee, Spokane Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer, Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste and others, claiming the vaccine mandate violated their civil rights. The deadline to provide proof of vaccination was October 18th.
“The Supreme Court has long endorsed state and local government authority to impose compulsory vaccines… Federal courts have routinely analyzed such cases using rational basis and regularly reject cases similar to this one that challenge vaccine mandates based on free exercise of religion,” U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Rice wrote in his decision.
Approximately 1,800 people have resigned, retired or been fired for failing to comply with the state’s mandatory vaccination policy; with 119,000 workers on payroll, that accounts for approximately 1.5% of the state’s workforce. That falls in line with dismissal rates for other organizations that enforced mandates.
Courts have held up multiple employment mandates for governmental operations and private companies during the coronavirus pandemic.