Public Health Authority
Case Updates
October 21, 2022
Case updates this week:

Monday, October 17: A federal court in Arizona dismissed a lawsuit by service members who were denied a religious exemption to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, which is currently paused due to an August ruling by a Florida federal court (Colonel Financial Management Officer v. Austin, 2022 WL 3643512 (M.D. Fla. Aug. 18, 2022). The court in Arizona dismissed the claim after determining that the service members in this case, and their sought remedies, were part of the CFMO class. (Short v. Berger, 2022 WL 10024222 (D. Ariz. Oct. 17, 2022).

Wednesday, October 19: A federal court in Minnesota dismissed a lawsuit by an employee of the Minnesota Department of Human Services for the department’s vaccine mandate and its lack of religious exemption. The court held that the claim must be dismissed because the state cannot be sued under the Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA) in federal courts. (Zarn v. Minnesota Department of Human Services, 2022 WL 11227241 (D. Minn. Oct. 19, 2022).

Wednesday, October 19: A federal court in California struck Los Angeles County’s COVID-19 tenant protections as “unconstitutionally vague.” (Apartment Association of Los Angeles County v. County of Los Angeles, 2022 WL 11237666 (C.D. Cal. Oct. 19, 2022) News link

Thursday, October 20: A Texas state court dismissed a lawsuit by a group of bar owners who sued Governor Abbott for executive orders issued earlier in the pandemic that restricted the ability of people to patronize bars. The court dismissed the lawsuit as moot. (Stand for Something Group Live v. Abbott, 2022 WL 11485464 (Tex. App. Oct. 20, 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.