On Oct. 25, the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Richmond County, upheld a challenge to New York City's vaccine mandate for public-sector employees, ordered the immediate reinstatement of and back pay to former New York City Department of Sanitation employees who had challenged the mandate, and declared the vaccine mandate for private-sector employees to be arbitrary and capricious.
Background
Several Department of Sanitation employees were discharged in February 2022 due to their failure to comply with an order of the Commissioner of Health and Mental Hygiene of the City of New York requiring all city employees to demonstrate proof of receiving at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Oct. 29, 2021. Although the Department of Sanitation subsequently issued a letter in June 2022, offering to reinstate the former employees if they complied with the vaccine mandate, the petitioners declined and filed an action seeking a declaratory judgment and other relief.
The court held that the health commissioner's order of Oct. 20, 2021, violated the New York State Constitution's separation-of-powers doctrine and its equal protection doctrine, which guarantees substantive and procedural due process rights. In addition, the court concluded that the health commissioner's Oct. 20, 2021, vaccine mandate for public-sector employees, the health commissioner's Dec. 13, 2021, vaccine mandate for private-sector employees, and the March 24, 2022, Emergency Executive Order No. 62,...
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