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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA RECORD

Saturday, November 2, 2024

LAPD officers challenging city's vaccine mandate lose in federal district court

Lawsuits
Journatic

A group of LAPD officers were seeking to block the city's vaccine mandate. | File Photo

A federal judge in Orange County has rejected a request from a collection of LAPD officers to block the City of Los Angeles from implementing certain elements of its COVID-19 vaccination mandate for city employees.

U.S. District Court Judge R. Gary Klausner wrote in a six-page decision that police employees did not validate the city's requirements for exemption requests based on any actual harm to the workers, however, an attorney for the officers said that was because the city agreed in court filings to change some of its rules.

"We're pleased that the city has now agreed to do what we were asking the court to order them to do," attorney Dan Watkins said, according to NBC Los Angeles.

In the lawsuit, officers stated that they objected to the city's plan to only use an online form to collect employee requests for medical and religious exemptions, stated that the city was asking for too much information from employees seeking religious exemptions and asked the court to stop the city from limiting which medical exemptions would be allowed.

Rob Wilcox, director of community engagement and outreach for the office of Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer said that they were pleased with the decision.

"We are pleased that the Court rejected the request for a TRO and are confident we will prevail in the underlying litigation,” Wilcox told the Southern California Record. “City Attorney Feuer has said from the beginning, ‘The U.S. Supreme Court and courts across the country have upheld vaccination mandates by the government and they’ve done so because the greater good compels it. And the greater good compels it now.’”

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