Emergency file

In the first COVID-19 vaccine request test that reached the Supreme Court, a group of Indiana University students asked a judge on Friday afternoon to stop the school from requiring all students to be vaccinated against the virus. The Federal District Court of Indiana and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit both refused to shelve the university’s vaccine request during the student’s lawsuit, leading to an application on Friday to seek immediate relief from the judge.

Indiana University announced this rule on May 21. It requires all faculty, staff, students and staff to be vaccinated unless they are eligible for an exemption, such as for medical reasons or religious objections for not being vaccinated. The students said that failure to vaccinate a vaccine that has not yet been fully approved by the Federal Food and Drug Administration will result in “serious consequences,” “equivalent to virtual expulsion,” including cancellation of class registration.

In their 31-page document to the Supreme Court, the students-represented by James Bopp, the conservative lawyer who brought the landmark campaign finance case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission – Arguing that they must give up the constitutional rights of “physical integrity, autonomy, and medical choice” and “compliance with Indiana University’s mission” so that they can “get government benefits (entry at IU)”. The students urged judges to intervene in solving these issues and provide guidance to lower courts to help them predict “a large number of cases related to the authorization of COVID vaccine.”

The students said that the university’s interest was not enough to justify the vaccine requirements, because the risk of university students’ death or serious illness due to COVID-19 was “close to zero”. They also argued that the authorization is both too broad (because it applies to young people who are at a lower risk of COVID but at a higher risk of vaccines) and insufficiently inclusive (because of the requirement to “completely expand the exemption” and “almost guarantee that anyone can get it”. ).

On July 18, a district judge rejected the student’s request for a court order to block the task.On Monday, the three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit Refuse to hold authorization While the litigation is ongoing. In the four-page opinion of the 7th Circuit, Judge Frank Eastbrook wrote that the university’s policies are clearly constitutional. Jacobson v. MassachusettsIn 1905, the Supreme Court upheld the case of smallpox vaccine authorization.

Eastbrook wrote: “Each university may determine the necessary conditions to protect the safety of other students in a collective environment,” and pointed out that medical examinations and vaccines against other diseases are routine requirements for college. “Vaccination can not only protect the vaccinated people, but also the people who come into contact with them. Close contact in the university is inevitable.”

case, Clarkson v. Trustee of Indiana University, Transferred to Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who was in charge of the emergency appeal of the 7th Circuit. Barrett can take action on his own request or submit it to the full court.

This article is Originally published in Howe on the Court.