The Supreme Court will not grant emergency relief in a case involving a vaccine mandate imposed on students by Indiana University, The New York Times reports. The university, a state school, will therefore be allowed to require students to be vaccinated against Covid.
Indiana University, Bloomington (Susan Vineyard/iStockPhoto)In writing the one-sentence denial of the request, Justice Amy Coney Barrett didn’t even ask the university for a response to the application, indicating that the appeal was not on very solid legal footing.
Eight students had sued the university, saying the requirement that all students get vaccinated against Covid violated their constitutional rights to “bodily integrity, autonomy and medical choice.”
Plaintiffs conceded, however, that since students could get an exemption for religious, ethical and medical reasons, it was likely that any student who didn’t want to be vaccinated would be granted an exemption.
The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago even declined to issue a temporary injunction barring the university from enforcing the vaccine mandate while the appeal moved forward.
The fact that a three-judge panel for the Seventh Circuit ruled unanimously to deny the request for an injunction was further evidence that the students’ case was shaky.
