FILE - Ingrid Radke, a critical care nurse in the Intensive Care Unit, receives a COVID-19 vaccination at St. Peter's Health in Helena, Mont., on Dec. 16, 2020. Legal challenges to a 2021 Montana law that prevents most businesses from requiring their employees be vaccinated against any communicable disease are moving forward in federal and state courts, with one challenge seeming more likely to succeed than the other. (Thom Bridge/Independent Record via AP, File)
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Legal challenges to a new Montana law that prevents most businesses from requiring their employees be vaccinated against any communicable disease are moving forward in federal and state courts, though a judge recently said one of the cases appeared unlikely to succeed.
The law passed by the 2021 Legislature makes it illegal for people to be discriminated against based on their vaccine status. However, it includes an exemption for nursing homes and other long-term care facilities if the federal government threatened to pull Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement.
The limited exemption led Montana medical providers and residents with compromised immune systems to file a challenge in federal court in September 2021. They want a judge to exempt hospitals and other medical providers from the new law, thus allowing them to require their employees to be vaccinated.
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