Unvaxxed Navy Seals May Be Forced To Get Shots By Supreme Court
The White House is asking the Supreme Court to overrule a federal judge who had upheld the Navy Seals' lawsuit against a Defense Department vaccine mandate. Separately, students are suing Santa Clara University over its booster mandate, alleging they experienced side effects.
Axios:
Biden Admin Asks Supreme Court To Intervene In Navy Seal Vaccine Mandate Case
The Biden administration on Monday asked the Supreme Court to allow the Department of Defense to enforce its COVID-19 vaccination requirement for a group of unvaccinated Navy Seals. A federal judge in January upheld a lawsuit from 35 Navy Seals and filed the preliminary injunction on religious freedom grounds, saying the service members had a right to refuse the vaccine because of their beliefs. The Biden administration has appealed the decision to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, but it filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court on Monday to let it enforce the mandate so it can avoid possibly deploying unvaccinated Navy Seals. (Gonzalez, 3/7)
In other vaccine mandate news —
Bay Area News Group:
Students Sue Santa Clara University Over Booster Mandate
Two students sued Santa Clara University over its COVID-19 vaccine booster shot requirement Monday. The lawsuit said sophomore Harlow Glenn, 20, agreed to get her first Pfizer COVID-19 shot last year to comply with the university’s vaccine mandate, but alleges she suffered numbing in her legs, severe headaches, menstrual cycle disruptions, bloody urine, body pains and hair loss. The university, she said, denied her requests for religious and medical exemptions from the shots. Another sophomore, Jackson Druker, 19, agreed to comply with the initial vaccination requirement and hasn’t suffered a bad reaction, but does not want to take the additional risk of a booster shot, the lawsuit said. Both students face disenrollment under university policy if they have not received the required initial and booster shots by March 17, the lawsuit said. (Woolfolk, 3/7)
AP:
South Dakota House Rewrites Noem's Vaccine Exemption Bill
South Dakota House Republicans on Monday passed a completely rewritten version of a bill from Gov. Kristi Noem to allow employees to gain exemptions from their employer’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates, setting up a statehouse clash over the proposal. House lawmakers, in a snub to the governor’s bill, rewrote it to allow employees to cite any objection of their conscience. Noem’s initial bill, which had passed the Senate, would allow employees to avoid mandates by citing either a medical exemption, religious grounds for refusal or a test showing antibodies against COVID-19 in the last six months. (Groves, 3/8)
And more masks are coming off —
AP:
Masks Are Now Optional In Most Rhode Island School Districts
In most school districts across Rhode Island, masks became optional on Monday. The exceptions are Providence, the state’s largest district, and Central Falls, which has been among the communities hardest hit by COVID-19. (3/7)
Bloomberg:
Chicago Schools To Remove Mask Mandate As Union Pushes Back
Chicago Public Schools said it plans to shift to optional masking for staff and students in a week, a move that could set up the third-largest U.S. system for another scuffle with its teachers union. The system, which serves more than 300,000 students, is the latest nationally to make the change. It will still encourage students pre-K through grade 12 and staff to use masks but is removing the requirement to wear them after Covid-19 infection rates have dropped and vaccination rates have grown, it said in a statement. (Singh, 3/7)
AP:
West Virginia Univ. Lifts Mask Requirements In Classrooms
West Virginia University is lifting COVID-19 mask requirements in its classrooms and labs regardless of a person’s vaccination status. The university said in a news release that the change is effective Tuesday. Last month WVU lifted a mask requirement in most indoor spaces. (3/8)
AP:
Beshear: People Shouldn't Feel Pressure To Take Off Masks
As COVID-19 cases drop, Kentuckians should resist feeling pressure to peel off masks if they think it’s best for them to keep wearing facial coverings in public, Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday. The governor reported that the number of new coronavirus cases, the test positivity rate and virus-related hospitalizations declined again last week in Kentucky. (Schreiner, 3/8)
Also —
AP:
New Mexico Court: Grand Juries Can't Challenge COVID Orders
New Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled Monday that citizens can’t convene grand juries to investigate the governor’s response to COVID-19 because her actions were lawful and within the scope of her authority. The unanimous order by the five-member court scuttles three grand jury petitions in the politically conservative southeastern corner of the state against Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. The justices also ordered district courts to deny any similar petitions as they are filed. (3/7)
