Six Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers filed a federal lawsuit on Saturday against L.A.’s vaccine mandate, which requires all city employees to be vaccinated by early October unless they have medical or religious exemptions.
The Los Angeles Times reported:
The lawsuit, filed Saturday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, claims the mandate violates the employees’ constitutional rights to privacy and due process, and asks the court to provide immediate and permanent relief from the requirement.
The six LAPD employees suing include individuals “who could not assert a medical or religious exemption” to the vaccine requirement, as well as individuals who have “experienced and recovered from COVID-19″ and have natural antibodies to fight the virus, the complaint states.
The lawsuit alleges the city’s mandate ignores the natural protections provided by such antibodies and claims the suing employees “can safely perform their job duties protecting themselves, fellow employees and the community they serve through non-pharmaceutical interventions such as daily health screenings, wearing masks, and quarantine.”
First responders nationwide have been among the more vociferous opponents of mandatory vaccination, though they are often exposed to more risks of infection. Ten LAPD employees have died from the coronavirus since the pandemic began.
Los Angeles firefighter John Knox, who leads a group called Firefighters for Freedom, told Breitbart News last week that the vaccine mandate violated members’ constitutional rights. Members of public sector unions, including the SEIU, have also complained that state and local vaccine mandates override provisions in the unions’ collective bargaining agreements.
Garcetti proposed the vaccine mandate in late July, when the Delta variant surge was at its peak. It was ratified 13-0 by the city council, and goes into effect in several weeks. Vaccine mandates are proving popular among some liberal voters.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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