Justice Barrett rejects students’ plea to stop Indiana University vaccine mandate

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Justice Amy Coney Barrett turned down on Thursday a student petition that aimed at blocking Indiana University’s (IU) compulsory vaccination against COVID-19.
• The school’s policy mandates all faculty, staff and students to get inoculated except for valid religious or medical reasons.
• The decision came amid the surge of new virus cases because of the Delta variant.

US Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett rejected a group of Indiana University (IU) students’ plea to stop the university’s policy that all students should be vaccinated.

Barrett appeared to rule the decision on her own, Thursday. She did not provide any reason or give any details about the verdict. She is the justice assigned with handling all emergency petitions in that part of the country.

The group of students who filed the petition to the Supreme Court argued that IU violated their constitutional rights.

“Students are facing IU’s imminent demand that they relinquish their constitutional rights in order to start school this fall,” the petition wrote.

The group also argued that the school “is coercing students to give up their rights to bodily integrity, autonomy, and of medical treatment choice in exchange for the discretionary benefit of matriculating at IU.”

The students also stressed that the vaccine could be more fatal than the virus itself.

“The risk of serious morbidity and mortality from COVID for those under 30 is close to zero. The known and unknown risks associated with COVID vaccines, particularly in those under 30, outweigh the risks to that population from the disease itself,” the group’s attorney James Bopp wrote.

“‘Protection of others’ does not relieve our society from the central canon of medical ethics requiring voluntary and informed consent,” he added.

Barrett’s ruling came amid the resurgence of COVID-19 infections across the country due to the rapid spread of the highly-contagious Delta variant. Companies and other universities have also implemented vaccination requirements given the rising virus cases.

The suit was the first time that a COVID-19 vaccination policy was brought to the highest tribunal. Previously, both a federal judge and the US Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit panel shunned the petition against the halting of the university’s vaccine requirement.

In May, the university mandated all students, faculty and staff to get inoculated except when they applied for a valid excuse, such as a religious belief or a medical reason.

“Each university may decide what is necessary to keep other students safe in a congregate setting,” Judge Frank Easterbrook wrote in the 7th Circuit opinion in favor of the university. “Vaccinations protect not only the vaccinated persons but also those who come in contact with them, and at a university close contact is inevitable.”

Per the university’s policy, individuals who had been given a religious or medical exemption must always wear face masks and undergo regular COVID-19 testing.

Source: MSN.com