A judge has refused a request by several members of law enforcement in Oregon asking that he temporarily block a COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
As reported by The Oregonian/OregonLive, 33 Oregon State Police troopers were involved in asking the judge to take action to stop the rule that is forcing them to get fully vaccinated.
The outlet reported on the decision:
Retired Oregon Supreme Court Justice Jack Landau said in a written opinion that based on case law “the police power of the state includes the authority to enact public health laws that may have the effect of curtailing individual rights.” Landau went on to say that Gov. Kate Brown is acting within her legislatively granted authority in issuing the vaccine mandate.
“The governor and the State of Oregon have an unquestioned interest in protecting the health and wellbeing of the state’s employees,” wrote Landau, who is presiding over the troopers’ lawsuit in Jefferson County Circuit Court. “Likewise, they have undeniable interest in protecting the public from the dangers posed by the COVID-19 virus.”
“Brown has mandated vaccinations not only for the state’s executive branch employees, including the troopers, but also for hundreds of thousands of healthcare workers and K-12 educators and volunteers. Her orders allow for individuals to seek religious or medical exemptions. At least eight lawsuits have been filed. Thursday’s ruling is the second denying plaintiffs a request to temporarily halt the mandates,” the outlet added.
Fox 12 Oregon reported in September, “Six people who are required to get COVID-19 vaccines to keep their jobs are suing Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and the state Health Authority, citing ‘natural immunity’ as the reason they won’t get a shot.”
Additionally, in September, over half of Oregon’s state workers were given an additional six weeks to get fully vaccinated, “with the deadline pushed back to Nov. 30,” per The Oregonian/OregonLive.
“The change affects about 24,000 state employees represented by the Service Employees International Union 503 out of about 42,000 state executive branch employees,” the outlet noted at the time.
The governor has enforced fairly strict COVID-19 policies in comparison with other states, and some of her policies have been met with pushback.
Earlier this year, “A cluster of five counties in rural Oregon voted Tuesday to consider seceding from the state and joining Republican-controlled Idaho.”
“Voters in Malheur, Sherman, Grant, Baker, and Lake Counties approved measures demanding county officials move forward with constituent demand to move the state’s borders in an attempt to escape blue-state rule. Last year, Jefferson and Union Counties approved similar measures,” per The Daily Wire.
Brown has also been criticized for caving to “woke” standards of teaching this year.
As reported by The Daily Wire, “Brown quietly signed into a law a bill suspending her state’s proficiency requirements on July 14. Oregon is expected to go without proficiency standards for high school graduates until new rules are crafted and implemented in 2024. Those new rules will likely not apply to high school graduates until 2027; however, as Oregon education officials are reluctant to change standards for students that have already entered high school, according to The Oregonian.”
“The governor’s office did not announce her signing of the bill in a signing ceremony nor in a press release. The signed bill did not appear in the legislative database as signed until July 29, an uncommon occurrence for a bill that was signed over two weeks prior. A spokesman for the governor said that suspending proficiency requirements would aid the state’s minority students,” The Daily Wire added.