Public Health Authority
Case Updates
October 28, 2022
Case updates this week:

Tuesday, October 25: 16 New York City sanitation workers who were fired for not receiving the COVID-19 vaccine were reinstated and will receive back pay after a Staten Island Superior Court judge ruled that the city’s health commissioner does not have the power to establish new working conditions or to block a person from reporting to work. The mandate is still in effect for all those not part of the suit. 

Wednesday, Oct. 26: A private school in Petoskey, Michigan, had their claims dismissed for mootness after they challenged two orders from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services that prohibited in-person schooling in public and private high schools in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The orders have since expired and the Department of Health has not imposed similar orders since. (Saint Michael Academy v. Hertel, 2022 WL 14707052 (6th Cir. Oct. 26, 2022)).

Thursday, Oct. 27: A California appeals court affirmed dismissal of Godspeak Calvary Chapel's claims against the County of Ventura for earlier gathering restrictions. The claims were dismissed as moot. (Godspeak Calvarly Chapel v. County of Ventura, 2022 WL 15170582 (Cal. Ct. App. Oct. 27, 2022)).
This newsletter is distributed by Public Health Law Watch as part of Act for Public Health, a working group of the Public Health Law Partnership that is convening to provide law and policy research, analysis, and expertise in support of public health authority.
The Public Health Law Partnership includes organizations with decades of experience in public health law, authority, and governance, including ChangeLab Solutions, the Network for Public Health Law, the Center for Public Health Law Research at Temple University, the Public Health Law Center at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, and Public Health Law Watch, a George Consortium initiative housed at the Center for Health Policy and Law at Northeastern University.