A federal appeals court on July 31 dismissed a lawsuit against the COVID-19 vaccine mandate imposed by the second-largest school district in the United States.
The mandate, put into place in 2021 by the Los Angeles Unified School District and rescinded in 2023, was constitutional because officials “could have reasonably concluded that COVID-19 vaccines would protect the health and safety of its employees and students,” U.S. Circuit Judge Mark J. Bennett wrote for the majority of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
The Health Freedom Defense Fund and other groups challenged the mandate, arguing that it violated constitutional rights such as the right to refuse medical treatment. Because COVID-19 vaccines did not prevent infection or transmission, instead only reducing symptoms, they are medical treatments and not traditional vaccines, the organizations told the court. That means the mandate is not protected by a 1905 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld a smallpox vaccine mandate, they said….