Five Los Angeles County employees who sued their employers, alleging that the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for county workers is unconstitutional, will have to shore up their lawsuit in order for it to proceed, a judge ruled Tuesday.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Gail Killefer denied a motion by county attorneys to dismiss the case outright, but she did find issues with the lawsuit’s three causes of action for declaratory relief and one for violation of due process. She gave the plaintiffs — who include a recent candidate for a state Senate seat — 30 days to file and amended complaint.
“Vaccination requirements have long been recognized as within the police power of state and local governments, and the county’s COVID-19 mandate passes the applicable rational basis review,” the judge wrote. “Plaintiffs’ attempt to cast doubt on the science behind the county’s mandate is nothing but a request that this court engage in prohibited courtroom fact-finding.”
Board of Supervisors Chair Hilda Solis issued an executive order last Aug. 4 requiring the county’s 110,000 employees to provide proof of vaccination against COVID-19, with exemptions for medical and religious reasons. Supervisors ratified her order six days later, making it official county policy. However, according to the lawsuit originally filed last Oct. 1 and twice amended since then, thousands of county employees have not complied.
“They will risk their jobs rather than violate their conscience and follow a plainly unlawful order,” the lawsuit states. None of the plaintiffs has complied with the vaccine order, the suit states.
“The county must consider and offer reasonable accommodations as a middle ground between individual freedoms and collective rights,” the suit states. “It did not do that. Instead, it viewed this sensitive personal issue through the lens of partisan politics.”
The plaintiffs include Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department employees Vincent Tsai and Oscar Rodriguez. Tsai, a deputy sheriff and a Republican, came in second in the 22nd state Senate District race behind incumbent Susan Rubio, D-Baldwin Park, in the June 7 primary. Other plaintiffs are Probation Department worker Enrique Iribe; Sanitation Department employee Mohamed Bina; Department of Public Health worker Shayne Lamont; and the nonprofit group Protection for the Educational Rights of Kids, which advocates for civil rights, bodily autonomy, medical freedom and other rights, with a particular focus on children and parental rights, according to the suit.
“PERK joined this lawsuit because of the devastating effect the county’s unlawful mandate would have on children and families in Los Angeles,” the suit states. “County residents cannot afford to lose thousands of public employees on a whim. They would be unable to obtain critical public services, including social services that kids and families depend on.”
The county “cannot just get rid of the unvaccinated employees who Ms. Solis chastised for not doing their part to end the pandemic,” the suit states. “It will have to provide … hearings to everybody. It will have to justify each adverse employment action. This will cost an enormous amount of time and money, as thousands of county employees have either chosen not to take the COVID-19 shots or do not wish to comply with the county’s forced disclosure requirement and digital surveillance.”
The lawsuit also states that “all county employees, like all competent adults in California, have a legally protected privacy interest in their bodily integrity.” The workers’ expectation of privacy is “reasonable under the circumstances” as the county has “never had a vaccination requirement for public employment before now and the county has never disciplined, much less fired, a county employee for declining an injection,” the lawsuit states.
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