Appeals Court Revives Case Against COVID-19 Vaccine Requirement

A U.S. appeals court on June 18 revived a case against a COVID-19 vaccine mandate issued by a city in Washington state under a proclamation from state officials. Firefighters who applied for exemptions to the Spokane mandate “plausibly assert that the individual city defendants applied the proclamation arbitrarily and capriciously, and that they thereby showed callous disregard to the firefighters’ Free Exercise rights,” U.S. Circuit Judge Ryan Nelson wrote in the ruling. Spokane officials imposed the mandate on health care providers after Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, in a 2021 proclamation, ordered providers to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Spokane firefighters have emergency medical technician licenses, so they fell under the mandate....