NY Supreme Court Judge Strikes Down NYC COVID Vaccine Mandate on City Workers – Orders Back Pay and Jobs Returned

In a rare sign that maybe some judicial sanity was returning in regards to COVID-19 vaccine mandates, New York Supreme Court Judge Ralph Porzio ruled yesterday that New York City's mandate on COVID-19 vaccines for city employees was unconstitutional.  Chad LaVeglia, the attorney for the Plaintiffs, who were NYC Sanitation workers, stated that the Judge ruled against the city because the vaccine mandate was "arbitrary and capricious." In what should be a "slam dunk" case, the main issue was that the NYC Mayor lifted the COVID-19 vaccine mandates for people in professional sports and the entertainment industry, but not city workers such as policemen, firefighters, sanitation workers, etc., back in March this year. Nevertheless, the city is appealing the ruling: "The city strongly disagrees with this ruling as the mandate is firmly grounded in law and is critical to New Yorkers' public health. We have already filed an appeal. In the meantime, the mandate remains in place as this ruling pertains solely to the individual petitioners in this case. We continue to review the court's decision, which conflicts with numerous other rulings already upholding the mandate." Attorney Chad LaVeglia who litigated the case has a different perspective, however: "It (the mandate) is null and void. We just defeated the vaccine mandate for every single city employee." In his interview with NYC for Yourself, he stated that the sanitation workers were going back to work (today) at 6 a.m. The judge also ordered the city to pay back lost wages since the mandate started.