Judge Tosses NY State Vaccine Mandate – Reinstates all City Workers Fired For Not Being Vaccinated, Orders Backpay

 New York – A Judge for the Richmond County Supreme Court, Judge Ralph Porzio, has ruled that the vaccine mandates issued by the New York City Health Commissioner are unconstitutional and violate the separation of powers. 

The ruling permits city employees to return to work effective immediately and orders backpay.

According to attorney Chad Laveglia, the judge ruled “the commissioner’s order mandating private and public employees get vaccinated was arbitrary and capricious.”

“Being vaccinated does not prevent an individual from contracting or transmitting Covid-19.” the judge stated.

 

While Laveglia was representing members of the Dept. of Sanitation in New York (DSNY), this ruling will impact the FDNY, NYPD, Dept. of Corrections and all other city employees who were shut down and forced to resign for refusing to cave in to an experimental emergency use vaccine.   

The defendants, of course, filed a Notice of Appeal.  In New York, there are 62 courts, one for each county, representing the Supreme Court.  Despite the name, the Supreme Court in New York is not the highest court.  That position reigns with the New York Court of Appeals.  It appears as though there is still the possibility of one last battle for the DSNY employees and Mr. Laveglia.

The City of New York is represented by the New York City Law Department.  This means that the tax-payers of New York City are funding the fight to take away their own rights to work despite their personal decisions not to take an experimental vaccine that has numerous documented health implications in comparison to all other vaccines since the VAERS system began tracking adverse events.

 

The tax-payer funded New York City Law Department writes in their appeal:

“Did Supreme Court err in granting the petition, granting declaratory relief, and denying respondents’
cross-motion to dismiss, where, among other things, the petition is time-barred and the underlying
employee vaccination requirements are entirely lawful and rational, as multiple courts have held” 

In the decision from the Richmond Supreme Court, Judge Porizio writes:

“An administrative agency usurps the authority of the legislative branch
when it promulgates a rule that the legislature did not delegate it the authority to make in the first
instance“

As you read the following, specifically the bold print, remember that the New York City Law Department is expending tax payer dollars to appeal this decision while costing the DSNY employees exorbitant legal fees to fight the appeal.  New York is no longer under a state of emergency, Joe Biden declared the pandemic over, and CDC guidelines for vaxxed vs unvaxxed are the same.

“The punishment is the process.”

Judge Porizio continues in his Conclusion:

“It is clear that the Health Commissioner has the authority to issue public health mandates.
No one is refuting that authority. However, the Health Commissioner cannot create a new
condition of employment for City employees. The Health Commissioner cannot prohibit an
employee from reporting to work. The Health Commissioner cannot terminate employees. The
Mayor cannot exempt certain employees from these orders. Executive Order No. 62 renders all of
these vaccine mandates arbitrary and capricious.

Being vaccinated does not prevent an individual from contracting or transmitting Covid19. As of the day of this Decision, CDC guidelines regarding quarantine and isolation are the same for vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals.  The Petitioners should not have been terminated for choosing not to protect themselves. We have learned through the course of the pandemic that the vaccine against Covid-19 is not absolute. Breakthrough cases occur, even for those who have been vaccinated and boosted. President Joseph Biden has said that the pandemic is over.  The State of New York ended the Covid-19 state of emergency over a month ago. 

As this Court stated in its decision in the Rivicci matter, this is not a commentary on the
efficacy of vaccination, but about how we are treating our first responders, the ones who worked
day-to-day through the height of the pandemic.  They worked without protective gear. They were infected with Covid-19, creating natural immunity. They continued working full duty while their exemption requests were pending.
They were terminated and are willing to come back to work for the City that cast them aside.

The vaccination mandate for City employees was not just about safety and public health;
it was about compliance. If it was about safety and public health, unvaccinated workers would
have been placed on leave the moment the order was issued. If it was about safety and public
health, the Health Commissioner would have issued city-wide mandates for vaccination for all
residents. In a City with a nearly 80% vaccination rate, we shouldn’t be penalizing the people who
showed up to work, at great risk to themselves and their families, while we were locked down.