Students at Indiana University have filed a lawsuit challenging the school’s Covid vaccine requirement.
Indiana’s attorney general had already issued an opinion that the school’s mandate goes against a new state law. Now eight students are fighting it in court. Meanwhile, financial giant Morgan Stanley bars unvaccinated employees from working in its New York-based offices.
CNN says, “A potential showdown is looming between eight students who want to come to the Indiana University campus in August but think the school’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate is unconstitutional. The mandate requires students, faculty and staff to be vaccinated or get an exemption for religious or medical reasons before starting the fall term.”ABC News: The lawsuit alleges that the university violates students’ rights as well as Indiana’s vaccine passport law. The recently passed law prohibits state and local governments from creating or requiring vaccine passports. In the lawsuit, the students claim that they are being coerced into vaccination and that if they do not comply, they face “the threat of virtual expulsion from school.”The lawsuit argues that with the United States’ outbreak receding, universal vaccination at the school isn’t necessary. “As the numbers continue to decline, such draconian measures as requiring all students to be vaccinated is not reasonable,” it reads.The lawsuit comes after a group of Republican lawmakers wrote a letter to Indiana University President Michael McRobbie last month, asking him to “to reconsider and rescind” the mandate. Days later, the state attorney general issued a non-binding opinion stating that public universities are “arms of the state” and therefore they must abide by the law banning vaccine passports.
“Following release of the Indiana attorney general’s opinion, our process was revised, with uploading proof of vaccination no longer required,” Carney said. “The attorney general’s opinion affirmed our right to require the vaccine.”
Indiana lags slightly behind the national average in vaccinations. As of Monday, 44% of residents had received at least one dose, and 40% were fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By comparison, 53% of Americans have gotten at least one shot, and 45% are fully vaccinated.
