U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Monday declined to block New York City from enforcing its mandate that all municipal workers be vaccinated against COVID-19, rebuffing a police detective who challenged the public health policy. The liberal justice denied Detective Anthony Marciano’s request for a stay of the vaccination requirement while an appeal over his claims continue in a lower court. A federal judge threw out Marciano’s case in March.
Sotomayor is the justice designated by the court to act on some matters arising from New York and certain other states. Marciano argued that neither state nor federal law allows government officials to impose vaccines on adults without “informed consent,” telling the justices in a legal filing that “he cannot and will not assume the health risks associated with an illegal, experimental” vaccine that he “does not need.”
The COVID-19 vaccines authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have been strongly recommended by federal health officials and public health experts and are not considered to be experimental. But many Americans have refused to get vaccinated. Marciano remains on active duty while he appeals the denial of his vaccine exemption request. The city’s health department ordered the mandate in October 2021. In February of this year, 1,430 municipal workers were fired for failing to comply.