(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) The medical tyrants and bureaucratic despots of New York City Democrat Mayor Eric Adams’ regime have decided to ignore a decision from a State Supreme Court judge who ruled the city’s COVID vaccine mandate for municipal workers is unconstitutional.
In Tuesday’s ruling, Staten Island Supreme Court Justice Ralph Porzio called the vax mandate “arbitrary and capricious,” a slap to the draconian measure originally imposed by former Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, and carried on by Adams, reported Gothamist.
“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,” Porzio wrote.
The judge ruled that the 16 employees of the city’s Department of Sanitation who sued the city in February after being fired for refusing to get the COVID jab should be immediately reinstated with back pay.
The city’s legal brigade, however, insisted that the judge’s order only covers the small group of fired sanitation workers. City officials, refusing to relinquish their power to punish, declared that the mandate would remain in place for all other municipal workers.
Since the mandate was first imposed, upwards of 1,750 municipal employees, across nearly all departments, have been fired for refusing to get jabbed. Adams had previously lifted the vax mandate for elites, including entertainers and sports figures, before repealing it entirely for the private sector.
“There is nothing in the record to support the rationality of keeping a vaccination mandate for public employees, while vacating the mandate for private sector employees or creating a carveout for certain professions, like athletes, artists, and performers,” Judge Porzio wrote.
Chad LaVeglia, the attorney representing the sanitation workers, said the Tuesday ruling covered all city employees, not just the 16 who sued.
“We just defeated the vaccine mandate for every single city employee, not just sanitation, but FDNY, NYPD,” he said. “All the brave men and women who have been our first responders are now free and should be able to go back to work.”
The city has already filed an appeal to the ruling.
“In the meantime, the mandate remains in place as this ruling pertains solely to the individual petitioners in this case,” a spokesman for the city’s legal department said.
LaVeglia struck a confident tone that the ruling would survive any appeal.
“It’s unconstitutional and it’s arbitrary and capricious, not just for sanitation workers but for everyone,” he said.
“The city’s appeal is futile, they’re wasting taxpayer money on a policy that is on its face unequal. Last time I checked, equality was a big deal.”
This is the 100% correct and just ruling! NOBODY should lose their job over the PERSONAL DECISION whether or not to get the COVID shot. I’ve long stated that everyone fired should be offered their jobs back with backpay!https://t.co/EGBcM4FxOH
— Lee Zeldin (@RepLeeZeldin) October 25, 2022
