A Manhattan judge on Friday barred enforcement of New York City’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate against members of the city’s largest police union. The city vowed an immediate appeal of the ruling by Supreme Court Judge Lyle E. Frank, who said the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s mandate couldn’t be used to fire or put on leave members of the Police Benevolent Association.
In his ruling, Frank wrote that the city’s vaccine mandate is “invalid to the extent it has been used to impose a new condition of employment to current PBA members.” Frank ordered the reinstatement to the NYPD of any PBA member who was “wrongfully terminated” or put on unpaid leave for refusing to get vaccinated.
“This decision confirms what we have said from the start: the vaccine mandate was an improper infringement on our members’ right to make personal medical decisions in consultation with their own health care professionals,” said Police Benevolent Association president Patrick J. Lynch. The union said the Department of Mental Health and Hygiene “exceeded” its legal authority when ordering the mandate, which in its view lacked a “rational basis.”