Louisiana AG sues governor to block COVID vaccination requirement for students
In a rare court battle between two stateelected officials, Louisiana's Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry is suing Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards to block the governor from requiring COVID-19 vaccination for children to attend schools.
Landry and state lawmaker Rep. Raymond Crews (R) filed a lawsuit in a Louisiana district court Wednesday, arguing that Edwards' plan to add the coronavirus vaccine to the immunization schedule for schools violates the state constitution.
A bipartisan panel of lawmakers on the State House Health and Welfare Committee voted 13-2 last week to reject the governor's proposal. All Republican lawmakers voted no, as well as an independent and three Democrats, the Associated Press reported. But Edwards told lawmakers on Tuesday he would move forward with the requirement, arguing the House committee's vote could not legally stop him from implementing the regulation.
Landry's lawsuit argues that Edwards' action violates provisions of the state constitution that give the legislature the power to make laws, not the executive branch. The attorney general argues that the rulemaking process outlined in state law that permits the governor to override the legislature's rejection of a regulatory proposal is unconstitutional.
“The Louisiana Constitution grants the governor the power only to enforce the law, not to make it,” the lawsuit says.
The governor's office told the AP that his actions were legal.
“We’ve not reviewed the attorney general’s full filing, but the Louisiana Department of Health is well within its legal authority on adding the COVID vaccine to the immunization schedule, where it will be treated like all other vaccines and parents may choose to opt their children out of it,” Edwards spokeswoman Christina Stephens said.
Edwards' administration argues that the COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective and that having children get vaccinated would help save lives.
In the letter informing lawmakers of his decision, Edwards said 19 children have died from COVID-19 in Louisiana since March 2020 while no one in the state has died from receiving the vaccine. He also emphasized that Louisiana provides broad exemptions to its school immunization requirements that will be available for parents that object in writing.
The governor's plan would add the COVID-19 vaccine to the state immunization schedule only for groups for whom the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has fully approved the vaccine. Currently, the vaccine is fully approved for children age 16 and older.
Should the FDA give full approval for the vaccines to be given for children under 16, the governor's plan would require them to be vaccinated as well.
Louisiana currently requires students to be vaccinated against mumps, measles, and polio before beginning public or private K-12 grade schools, day cares, universities, and colleges.
WATCH: Health official STUNS when she says what will finally end school mask mandates
On "The Rubin Report," Dave Rubin was joined by fellow BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere, Lauren Chen, and Allison Williams to talk about a recent statement made by Chicago's Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady.
Speaking at a "Vaccination Awareness Day" event, Arwady caught parents and reporters off guard when she suggested school mask mandates might not end until the vaccination rate reaches 100%.
"My expectation is schools would probably be one of the last places honestly that we would not have masks in place, but if we can get to a point where schools are 100% vaccinated, that would be the setting I would be particularly interested in," Arwady told reporters.
"To be clear, it's 100% impossible that 100% will ever be vaccinated," Dave said in response.
Watch the video clip below or find the full episode of "The Rubin Report" here:
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Dr. Fauci says he 'strongly' supports local vaccine mandates for all school teachers and employees
Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday that he strongly supported vaccine mandates for all eligible school teachers and employees.
Fauci made the comments during an interview by Jake Tapper on his CNN show.
"For anybody listening right now, any school districts or teachers, do you think," Tapper asked, "if we're talking about protecting kids, the smart decision would be for school districts and states to mandate vaccines for all those who are eligible for teachers, faculty and staff at schools?"
"I feel strongly that way, Jake, I really do," Fauci responded.
"I mean we want to protect our children, we want to keep them in school physically in the classroom. We've spoken often on this show on the deleterious effects of keeping kids out of school physically, mental health issues, social developmental issues," he explained.
"But if you're gonna do that, you've got to create a safe environment. And there are a few ways of doing that. One of the most important ways is to surround the children with people who are vaccinated if they are eligible to be vaccinated. And that means teachers and personnel in the school," Fauci continued.
"We got to maintain the safety of the children at the same time we provide them with an education in a way that does not hinder them in the way virtual learning does," he concluded.
Tapper responded, "An important lesson for anybody in a school board, or teachers' union, or school administrator to hear."
Fauci has said previously that he expected that local organizations would order their own vaccine mandates without the federal government issuing a national command.
"This is very serious business," Fauci said in August. "You would wish that people would see why it's so important to get vaccinated. But you're not going to get mandates centrally from the federal government."
Fauci also said Thursday that vaccines for children younger than 12 should be approved soon but he could not say when that might be.
"I hope that will be soon, but I can't guarantee it," he said.
Here's the video of Fauci's comments:
Asked if he believes it's a smart decision for Covid-19 vaccination to be mandated for all eligible teachers and st… https://t.co/o7bKSG825k
— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) 1629411608.0
Dr. Fauci says now is the time for local vaccine mandates
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House's top adviser on COVID-19, said Tuesday that local governments should require teachers to get vaccinated.
Speaking on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Fauci said that the risks posed by the Delta variant are so "serious" that he is now in favor of vaccine mandates.
"I'm going to upset some people on this, but I think we should" have vaccine mandates for teachers, Fauci said. "We are in a critical situation now. We've had 615,000+ deaths and we are in a major surge now as we're going into the fall, into the school season."
"This is very serious business," Fauci continued. "You would wish that people would see why it's so important to get vaccinated. But you're not going to get mandates centrally from the federal government."
Instead of federal mandates, Fauci said there should be local mandates "for schools, for teachers, for universities, for colleges."
"I"m sorry, I mean I know people must like to have their individual freedom and not be told to do something, but I think we're in such a serious situation now, that under certain circumstances, mandates should be done," he said.
"I know people like to have their individual freedom and not be told to do something, but I think we're in such a s… https://t.co/hpI2Avh1VR
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) 1628597564.0
Fauci has previously said that Americans should expect a "flood" of COVID-19 vaccine mandates once the Food and Drug Administration grants full approval to one or more of the vaccines.
More than a dozen large U.S. corporations have already enacted vaccine mandates for some or all of their workers. Walmart, Google, Tyson Foods, and United Airlines were among the latest companies to require workers to be vaccinated to keep their jobs.
Tyson Foods CEO Donnie King announced the company's vaccine mandate on August 3, requiring all employees to be vaccinated no later than Nov. 1.
"We did not take this decision lightly. We have spent months encouraging our team members to get vaccinated – today, under half of our team members are. We take this step today because nothing is more important than our team members' health and safety, and we thank them for the work they do, every day, to help us feed this country, and our world," King said.
United Airlines will require all 67,000 of its U.S.-based employees to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 25 or risk losing their jobs.
Walmart, which has 1.6 million U.S. employees, is requiring all corporate and management staff to be vaccinated while blue-collar employees in areas with high rates of COVID-19 transmission are required to wear masks.
According to the New York Times COVID-19 tracker, the daily average reported cases on Monday was 124,470, an increase of 118% over 14 days. As the Delta variant spreads, the U.S. is averaging more than 100,000 cases per day for the first time since February. About half of all U.S. residents and nearly 61% of adults are now fully vaccinated.
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