Former employees of the Los Angeles Unified School District can pursue their legal objections to the district’s now-defunct COVID-19 vaccination policy as a result of a federal appeals court ruling handed down last week.
In a 2-1 decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the plaintiffs, including the Health Freedom Defense Fund and California Educators for Medical Freedom. The ruling overturns a district court decision that dismissed the groups’ allegations that LAUSD interfered with their rights to refuse medical treatment.
Until last year, the district had a policy in place that mandated district personnel get the COVID-19 vaccine or face dismissal. But 12 days after oral arguments before the appeals court judges, LAUSD ended the COVID-19 policy, according to the June 7 decision authored by Judge Ryan Nelson.
The three-judge panel found that what’s called the voluntary cessation exception to mootness applied in the case at hand. In other words, a defendant cannot render an allegation moot by deciding to end the conduct in question after being sued.
“LAUSD’s pattern of withdrawing and then reinstating its vaccination policies was enough to keep this case alive,” the court staff’s summary of the decision says. “The record supported a strong inference that LAUSD waited to see how the oral argument in this court proceeded before determining whether to maintain the policy or to go forward with a pre-prepared repeal option.”
In addition, LAUSD did not meet its burden to show there is little chance that school district officials would put a similar policy in place in the future, according to the decision. The court’s conclusion also injects some doubts about the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine.
“(The) plaintiffs allege that the vaccine does not effectively prevent spread (of COVID-19) but only mitigates symptoms for the recipient and therefore is akin to a medical treatment, not a ‘traditional’ vaccine,” the court’s summary states. “Taking plaintiffs’ allegations as true at this stage of litigation, plaintiffs plausibly alleged that the COVID-19 vaccine does not effectively ‘prevent the spread’ of COVID-19.”
The school district is still mulling over its next steps in the litigation or appeal avenues.
“Los Angeles Unified is reviewing the Ninth Circuit ruling and assessing the district’s options,” an LAUSD spokesperson said in an email to the Southern California Record.
The president of the Wyoming-based Health Freedom Defense Fund (HFDF) called the court’s decision a victory for truth and decency.
“The Ninth Circuit ruling … demonstrates that the court saw through LAUSD’s monkey business, and in so doing, it made clear that Americans’ cherished rights to self-determination, including the sacred right of bodily autonomy in matters of health, are not negotiable,” Leslie Manookian said in a provided statement.
The HFDF also indicated that the appeals court did not give any weight to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the coronavirus vaccines are “safe and effective.”
In a dissent, Judge Michael Hawkins argued that the court lacked any reasonable sign that the school district would reimpose the vaccine policy in the future.
“Because there is no longer any policy for our court to enjoin, I would, as our court has done consistently in actions challenging rescinded early pandemic policies, hold that this action is moot, vacate the district court’s decision and remand with instructions to dismiss the action without prejudice,” Hawkins said.