A group of current and former L.A. city employees have hit the city of Los Angeles with a landmark lawsuit challenging L.A.'s Covid vaccine mandate.
Led by former LAPD officer Michael McMahon, a group of 56 individuals is suing former Mayor Eric Garcetti, current Mayor Karen Bass, and the city over the mandate, seeking damages for lost income, pensions, seniority, and emotional distress.
The lawsuit, considered a first-of-its-kind, alleges the deprivation of the plaintiffs' constitutional and federal statutory rights to refuse an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) investigational drug without facing penalties or loss of entitled benefits.
The core argument centers around the assertion that the Covid vaccines had not undergone full vetting before being mandated. The lawsuit contends that the mandate violates individuals' constitutional rights to refuse a product authorized for EUA, citing Congress's prohibition on introducing drugs into commerce before receiving FDA marketing license.
Notably, the FDA designates the drugs specified in the ordinance as "investigational with no license for any indication.”
“As a matter of law, Congress prohibits persons from introducing drugs and biologics into commerce before receiving an FDA marketing license,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles federal court on behalf of the plaintiffs by attorneys David Schexnaydre, of Mandeville, Louisiana, and Jennifer W. Kennedy, of Sierra Madre.
According to the legal filing, 20 employees were terminated for refusing to comply with the vaccination requirement, facing disciplinary actions that ultimately led to the loss of their employment. An additional 24 plaintiffs noted they were vaccinated "under duress.”
“Defendants penalized them by disciplining Plaintiffs and ultimately terminating their employment,” the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit invokes the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection of Laws, arguing that the defendants had a constitutional duty to treat all plaintiffs equally, irrespective of their vaccination choice.
The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment is also cited, alleging infringement upon the plaintiffs' right to due process by compelling them, under threat of penalty, to surrender their due process rights.
Lead plaintiff Michael McMahon called the mandate "a violent assault on the individual's constitutional right to refuse a product that's been given an Emergency-Use-Authorization.”
McMahon, critical of Garcetti and Bass, stated, "Mayors Garcetti and Bass and every City Council Member have continuously overstepped their bounds.”
Attorney Jennifer Kennedy, representing the plaintiffs, emphasized that the lawsuit is not seeking injunctive relief but rather damages for the harm caused in the past, amounting to multiple millions of dollars.
”This is for the harm they did in the past, and this is for multiple millions of dollars,” Kennedy told Fox 11.
Addressing concerns about jurors' vaccination status, Kennedy asserted that such information is a violation of medical privacy.
"We're not asking for injunctive relief. This is a lawsuit for damages,” Kennedy told Fox 11.
Garcetti, who issued the vaccine mandate, warned employees that refusal to be vaccinated would result in job termination by Dec. 18, 2021.
"Let me be clear: Any employee who refuses to be vaccinated by this date should be prepared to lose their job,” Garcetti said of the requirement, according to ABC 7.
At the time, critics argued that vaccination is a matter of personal freedom.
Unvaccinated employees faced the requirement of undergoing two weekly COVID-19 tests at their own expense, with $65 per test deducted from their paychecks.
Earlier this year, Eric Garcetti was sworn in as the U.S. ambassador to India after Senate confirmation.
A previous nomination attempt for the job had stalled in 2021 due to allegations of misbehavior, including sexual harassment, during Garcetti's administration.