The Supreme Court on Thursday left intact Indiana University’s requirement that students be vaccinated against COVID-19 before attending classes this fall.
The ruling was issued unilaterally by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who handles emergency matters from Indiana, and came in response to a request earlier this month from eight Indiana students to block the requirement.
The denial of the emergency request was announced by a Supreme Court spokesperson. Barrett opted not to refer the matter to the other justices and provided no rationale for the ruling, which was the first petition over mandatory vaccinations to reach the court.
The university previously announced its goal of returning to normal campus operations beginning in the fall 2021 semester. Toward that end, the school imposed a policy requiring that all students, faculty and staff will be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or have an approved exemption, prompting the students’ legal challenge.
“Students’ refusal is based on legitimate concerns including underlying medical conditions, having natural antibodies, and the risks associated with the vaccine,” the petitioners wrote in a 39-page brief filed last Friday.
“All students are adults, are entitled to make their own medical treatment decisions, and have a constitutional right to bodily integrity, autonomy, and of medical treatment choice in the context of a vaccination mandate,” they continued. “IU, however, is treating its students as children who cannot be trusted to make mature decisions and has substituted itself for both the student and her attending physician, mandating a choice which is the student’s to make, based on her physician’s advice.”
Their Supreme Court petition came after losing two rounds in the lower federal courts.
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Supreme Court leaves intact Indiana University's vaccination requirement https://t.co/ZpgsDexxZG pic.twitter.com/g3jRGPT6bo
— The Hill (@thehill) August 13, 2021
An in-chambers denial without even requesting a response — let alone referring it to the full Court — is a pretty strong sign that #SCOTUS is in no hurry to block university vaccination mandates, especially those, like Indiana’s, with appropriate medical and religious exemptions. https://t.co/x3DsRQyeLF
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) August 12, 2021
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