Federal Court Pauses California School District's Vaccine Mandate

Judges say district cannot only permit secular exemptions

A federal court temporarily blocked a California school district's 
vaccine mandate the day before it was set to take effect after 
determining the school unfairly denied religious exemptions.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Sunday granted an emergency 
injunction against the San Diego Unified School District's 
vaccination mandate for students 16 and older. The judges ruled that 
the district's mandate must remain paused as long as it allows 
medical exemptions for pregnant students.

The court will soon issue a full ruling on the San Diego district's 
mandate. In a partial dissent, Judge Sandra Segal Ikuta wrote that 
the district should not be allowed to deny religious exemptions 
while allowing any type of secular exemption.

"[A]ny unvaccinated student attending in-person classes poses the 
same risk to the school district's interest in ensuring a safe 
school environment," Segal Ikuta wrote.

The Supreme Court in recent months has rejected a series of 
individual appeals to COVID-19 vaccine mandates. On Monday, the 
justices dismissed an appeal from Massachusetts health care workers 
who said the state's vaccine mandate violates their religious 
beliefs. The Court has yet to consider a case on public school 
COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

The San Diego Unified School District board voted to implement the 
mandate in September. Unvaccinated students would have needed to get 
their first dose on Nov. 29 in order to be fully vaccinated by Dec. 
20, the deadline set by the mandate. Any student not vaccinated by 
that date would have had to attend school remotely.

The Ninth Circuit issued the injunction in response to a lawsuit 
filed by an anonymous 16-year-old student. The student says the 
mandate violates her Christian beliefs, which prohibit her from 
taking vaccines developed using aborted fetal tissue.

Pfizer and Moderna used stem cell lines from aborted fetal tissue to 
test their vaccines. Johnson & Johnson used aborted fetal tissue to 
develop and produce its vaccine.

Paul Jonna, an attorney for the student, echoed the Ninth Circuit's 
ruling.

"[The government] treated comparable, secular activity better than 
religious exercise," Jonna told the Washington Free Beacon. "So if 
they're going to offer secular exemptions to mandates they're going 
to have to offer religious exemptions too."

The mandate also applies to school staff, who have access to 
religious exemptions under federal law. The San Diego Unified School 
District did not respond to a request for comment.

California governor Gavin Newsom (D.) announced in October that he 
will issue a vaccine mandate for all students once the FDA fully 
approves COVID vaccines for young children. San Diego Unified is one 
of several California districts to implement individual mandates in 
the interim.

A total of 621 Americans under the age of 18 have died from COVID-
19, according to the CDC.


https://freebeacon.com/coronavirus/federal-court-pauses-california-
school-districts-vaccine-mandate/