1.) New York COVID-19 Quarantine Rules Unconstitutional and Illegal: Judge
“A New York Supreme Court judge this month quietly ruled that regulations mandating that people infected with or exposed to highly contagious communicable diseases be quarantined are a violation of state law, declaring them null and void.“
The Isolation and Quarantine procedures, known as Rule 2.13, were enacted in February.
Three Republican state legislators, Sen. George Borrello, assemblyman Chris Tague, and assemblyman Michael Lawler, along with Uniting NYS, filed a lawsuit against Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul, Commissioner of Health Mary Bassett, the state’s health department, and the Public Health and Health Planning Council.
Plaintiffs argued that the Isolation and Quarantine procedures were in violation of the New York State Constitution and a violation of the separation of powers.
“It’s unconstitutional in our eyes, and anything like that should go through the legislature,” Tague told local media. “It should have an opportunity to be debated. To be able to have facts brought forth by health professionals, and leaders within our communities before we just decide to put something into law.”
2.) Judge grants temporary injunction against COVID vax mandate for airmen seeking religious exemption
A district court judge in Ohio granted a temporary injunction Thursday against the Air Force’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all of the branch’s members requesting a religious exemption.
U.S. District Court Judge Matthew McFarland, of the Southern District of Ohio, granted the 14-day injunction in the case of Doster v. Kendall, giving the government seven days to respond and explain “why this Court should not grant a class-wide preliminary injunction,” according to the court order.
Under the injunction, which applies to the entire Air Force and Space Force, including the Air Force Reserve, no punishment, discipline, or adverse action may be taken against service members who submitted a Religious Accommodation Request for exemption from the vaccine mandate.
“This is a huge victory for many of my Air Force clients,” said R. Davis Younts, a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserves and a Judge Advocate General’s Corps lawyer privately representing several military members seeking the exemptions. “Another federal judge has found that ‘The facts show Defendants have engaged in a pattern of denying religious accommodation requests.’