Fired College Professor Sues Tim Walz Over Minnesota’s Covid Vaccine Mandate
A former ethics professor at a taxpayer funded community college in Minnesota is suing Governor Tim Walz after he was fired for refusing to comply with the state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for government employees and expressing his opinions on the matter to his students.
Professor Russell Stewart filed a complaint in federal court Wednesday against Walz and the leadership at Lake Superior College over his March 2022 termination for non-compliance with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate and a September 2021 email he sent to students explaining his position, National Review has learned.
The lawsuit argues Stewart’s rights under the First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment were violated by the COVID-19 mandate and punishment for speaking out against it at a publicly funded institution. Steward was an ethics professor for three decades and held a position equivalent to tenured faculty for 27 years. He is asking for reinstatement to his prior position and for the court to declare his Constitutional rights were violated.
Alabama Lawmaker Files Bill Prohibiting Discrimination Over Refusing Vaccines, Face Masks
An Alabama lawmaker has filed a bill to protect people from “discrimination” for their vaccination status or refusal to wear a facial covering. HB520, filed by Ernie Yarbrough, R-Trinity, prohibits multiple entities from discriminating against individuals for their conscientious or religious convictions against vaccines, drugs or mask wearing.
“This bill would prohibit an employer or prospective employer from discriminating against an individual on the basis of the individual’s refusal of certain drugs, vaccines, or facial coverings for reasons of conscience, including religious convictions,” the bill states. AL.com reached out to Yarbrough for comment but received no response.
This prohibition would also apply to public accommodations, hospitals or health insurers based on the same reasoning. The bill provides that any individual discriminated against can seek injunctive relief for damages incurred.
Texas Judge Vacates Nursing Home Staffing Mandates
Healthcare Innovation reported:
Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas has issued a ruling to vacate the Biden Administration’s federal staffing mandate for nursing homes that was to be phased in starting in 2026.
“Today’s ruling from the Northern District of Texas is a victory for our nation’s seniors and their families,” said Clif Porter, president and CEO of the American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living, in a statement. “This unrealistic staffing mandate threatened to close nursing homes and displace vulnerable seniors. The court decision not only upholds the rule of law and balance of powers, but it protects access to care for our aging population. We appreciate Judge Kacsmaryk’s careful and thoughtful review of this case.”
“The Court has confirmed that CMS does not have the authority to issue such staffing requirements — only Congress does. Therefore, we now call on Congress to act,” Porter continued. “In light of evolving care practices and our nation’s changing demographics, federal policymakers should not be dictating staffing hours but encouraging innovation and high-quality outcomes. The staffing mandate is a 20th Century solution that should be blocked by Congress once and for all.”
‘General Hospital’ Former Crew Members’ Vaccine-Mandate Lawsuit Trial Delayed as Sides Try to Settle — Update
A Los Angeles judge has postponed the trial on a lawsuit filed by two ex-General Hospital crew members who claim they were fired from the show after objecting to getting the COVID-19 vaccine on religious grounds.
Superior Court Judge Tony Richardson delayed the trial date from May 13 to June 9 after an attorney for ABC, which airs the veteran daytime drama, said during a hearing Tuesday that both sides intend to try and resolve the case next month with the help of a retired Judge Mitchell Beckloff, who presided over the case previously.
Plaintiffs James Wahl and his son, Timothy James Wahl, were stage technicians who worked in close contact with unmasked actors. Both were fired in 2021. In their court papers, the men’s attorneys stated that ABC wrongly characterized the plaintiffs’ objections to vaccination “purely as lifestyle choices that it had no duty to accommodate.”
Toronto Public Health Begins Suspending More Than 10,000 Students Behind on Mandatory Vaccinations
Toronto Public Health has begun suspending over 10,000 students who are behind on their vaccinations. Dr. Vinita Dubey, Toronto’s Associate Medical Officer of Health, tells CityNews the lower vaccination rates can be easily traced back to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Parents are busy. Maybe they missed it through the pandemic,” said Dr. Dubey. “We know that some families don’t have a family doctor, which is certainly a barrier, but we also know that vaccine confidence has waned.” CityNews spoke to some local parents and students about Toronto Public Health’s decision.
“I feel like it’s kind of unfair,” a student said on Tuesday. “I mean, everyone deserves an education, even if you don’t have a vaccine, so you don’t get educated?” “They should leave them alone; they should have a choice,” one parent said.
Under the Immunization of School Pupils Act, students must be vaccinated against nine vaccine-preventable diseases: diphtheria, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, meningococcal disease, pertussis (whooping cough) and varicella, or must have a valid exemption on file. Those who don’t meet the requirements can face up to 20-day suspensions.
Penn State Faces COVID-19 Religious Exemption Lawsuit Brought by Former Worker
The Centre Daily Times reported:
An evangelical Christian who was fired by Penn State argued in a lawsuit filed Friday that the university discriminated and retaliated against him after he requested a religious exemption from the school’s weekly COVID-19 testing mandate.
Former remote multimedia specialist Zachary Rackovan, of Blair County, claimed Penn State acted with malice when it approved his request to be exempt from the university’s vaccine mandate, but not the testing requirement. Both were in place around the time vaccines became widely available.
“If I were to submit myself to the weekly testing, I would not just be disappointed in myself, I would quite literally be compromising my relationship with God, and my eternal salvation,” Rackovan wrote in an email to the university. A Penn State spokesperson declined Monday an opportunity to respond to the lawsuit, citing the university’s policy against commenting publicly about ongoing litigation.
Maine Legislature to Discuss Bills on Vaccine Exemptions for Students
The Maine Legislature’s Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs is set to hold public hearings Monday to discuss two bills that could change vaccine requirements for students in Maine. One of the bills, LD-174, “An Act to Restore Religious Exemptions to Immunization Requirements,” sponsored by Republican State Representative Gary Drinkwater, seeks to allow immunization exemptions for students based on religious beliefs.
“The state of Maine law is not neutral. It’s favoring one group over the other group,” Drinkwater said. He plans to present his bill by referencing the Maine Human Rights Act, stating, “You cannot discriminate against religious people.”
Currently, Maine law requires students enrolled in elementary and secondary schools to have a certain number of vaccinations to attend school, although medical exemptions are permitted. Drinkwater argues that this is unfair, saying, “Kids with IEPs are allowed to get medical exemptions if they need one, and they are allowed to attend class without a vaccination because they have an IEP again. The law is not neutral; it favors one group over another group.”
Ten Sailors Rejoin Navy After COVID-19 Separations
Less than a dozen sailors, including active-duty and reserve, rejoined the Navy after the COVID-19 mandate ended, allowing those kicked out for not taking the vaccine to return to service. The Navy reenlisted 10 sailors, Capt. Candace Tresch, spokeswoman for the chief of naval personnel, told USNI News.
The ability to rejoin started once the Department of Defense, then led by former Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, rescinded the memo. Under the mandate, the Navy involuntarily separated 1,878 sailors, “which isn’t statistically significant,” Tresch said. About 30,600 sailors voluntarily separated — for all reasons — during the time that the vaccine mandate was in place.
It is unclear how many sailors voluntarily separated due to the vaccine mandate. Tim Dill, who is performing the duties of deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said that the Department of Defense does not have a number of people who voluntarily separated, adding that it was not an option for people to list as to why they left. He also could not say how many service members reenlisted or are in the process of reenlisting.
South Carolina Senate Committee Discusses Vaccine Bill
It may soon be against the law for a business or organization to have a vaccine mandate for employees. After the COVID-19 pandemic, a bill was passed to make it illegal to require public employees to be vaccinated in South Carolina. The law expired in 2023, and now some lawmakers want to bring it back permanently.
“If they voluntarily want to put that in their body, then so be it; government shouldn’t make them do that,” Senator Shane Martin (R – Spartanburg) said.
The bill said the government should not be allowed to mandate the COVID-19 vaccination. It would also put a limit on quarantine time, where one doesn’t currently exist. If the bill is passed as is, it would set the maximum of 21 days.
Illinois Unveils Online Tool Showing Measles Vaccination Rates by School
With measles spreading across the country, the Illinois Department of Public Health unveiled a new online tool Wednesday that allows people to look up measles vaccination rates and data about the risk of outbreaks at individual schools across the state. Illinois has not had any reported cases of measles yet this year, but there were 607 reported cases across the country so far this year, as of April 3, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Earlier this week, Texas announced that a second child with measles had died. In all, three people with measles in the U.S. have died this year, and all three were unvaccinated. Before the recent outbreak, there had not been a measles death in the U.S. for a decade.
“Our new dashboard provides the public with the ability to review the measles vaccination rates in their child’s school and its risk for an outbreak,” said Dr. Sameer Vohra, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, in a news release. The new Measles Outbreak Simulator Dashboard uses school vaccination data from 2023-2024 to predict, project and estimate the size and spread of a measles outbreak in individual Illinois schools.
