Vaccine Mandate Ruled Invalid for Police Association Members in New York

New York police officers have scored a big win in their fight against the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate that cost some their jobs, with a New York Supreme Court judge ruling that the mandate—as it applies to members of the Police Benevolent Association (PBA)—is “invalid” and that fired cops must be given back their jobs.

Judge Lyle Frank said in the Sept. 23 ruling (pdf) that PBA members who lost their jobs for refusing the jab must be “reinstated to the status they were as of the date of the wrongful action.”

While it’s unclear how many PBA members lost their jobs due to the mandate, a City Hall spokesperson told CBS News that more than 1,750 city employees have been fired for refusing to get the shot.

Frank said in the ruling that a key reason why the mandate was illegal is because the city didn’t collectively bargain with the PBA, which represents some 24,000 members of the New York Police Department.

While there were “a multitude of cases” where courts have ruled against challenges to vaccines being a condition of employment, in those instances, the city and the respective union “collectively bargained to include the vaccination mandate as a new condition of employment,” the judge said, adding that that was “not the case here.”… (Excerpt from The Epoch Times)