NEW YORK CITY (LifeSiteNews) – In a shock ruling, a New York judge ruled Friday that the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for members of a police officers’ union was “invalid,” ordering any officers terminated because of it to be reinstated.
Delivering the ruling late Friday night, New York State Supreme Court Justice Lyle Frank came down in favor of the Police Benevolent Association (PBA), the largest law-enforcement union in the city.
Justice Frank declared the city’s COVID shot mandate to be “invalid to the extent it has been used to impose a new condition of employment to current PBA members.”
Notably, Frank ordered that “members of the PBA that were caused to be wrongfully terminated and/or put on leave without pay as a result of non-compliance with the unlawful new condition of employment discussed above are directed to be reinstated to the status they were as of the date of the wrongful action.”
The PBA, led by president Patrick J. Lynch, had argued that the vaccine mandate violated the “New York City Charter and the New York City Administrative Code.” They also argued that the Department of Mental Health and Hygiene (DOH) Commissioner “exceeded his authority when ordering the mandate,” and that the mandate itself “violates administrative rulemaking requirements,” and even “lacks a rational basis.”
The Court did not rule entirely in the union’s favor, however, and rejected the PBA’s argument that the mandate contravened rule-making requirements.
In explaining why the court ruled against the mandate as applied to the PBA, Frank stated that he did not find the vaccine mandate illegal overall: “this Court does not deny that at the time it was issued the vaccine mandate was appropriate and lawful.” Frank deemed it to be “invalid” since the city authorities did not collectively bargain with PBA members.
At the same time, he added that: “the Court however does not see, nor have respondents established, a legal basis or lawful authority for the DOH to exclude employees from the workplace and impose any other adverse employment action as an appropriate enforcement mechanism of the vaccine mandate.”
CBS News and others reported that New York City officials immediately filed notice that they would appeal Frank’s decision.
Welcoming the ruling, PBA president Patrick Lynch issued a statement, saying it “confirms what we have said from the start: the vaccine mandates was an improper infringement of our members’ right to make personal medical decisions in consultation with their own medical health professionals.”
“We will continue to fight to protect those rights,” he closed.
Statement from @NYCPBA Pres. Pat Lynch on decision striking down NYC vax mandate for PBA members.
Read decision and order here: https://t.co/GNtdzEgStu pic.twitter.com/tfbMxa6Kq3
— NYC PBA (@NYCPBA) September 23, 2022
New York City has been beset with harsh COVID related mandates since the onset of the COVID era. In February, over 1,400 city employees were fired for refusing to take one of the experimental COVID injections. The majority, over 900, were in public education and most of the entire 1,400 had gone without pay since November 2021.
The Biden Administration has proposed a series of expansions to Title IX for all school districts — including “protection” for transgender students — attempting to "make clear that preventing someone from participating in school programs and activities consistent with their gender identity would cause harm in violation of Title IX.”
School districts across America would force girls to share locker room with boys, changing and showering in the same areas, rooming together when traveling, and more — all if a boy says he’s a girl.
*** Transgender accommodations are an alarming affront against the dignity and safety of girls and cannot be tolerated or implemented in America’s school districts. ***
The dangers facing young girls are unimaginable. SEND A MESSAGE NOW to your State Board of Education: protect our girls and stop this insanity!
Florida’s state Department of Education is already sending memos across the Sunshine State, reminding school districts, private schools, charters, and more that they are not required to comply with the federal mandates — for now.
Demand that every State Board of Education follow Florida's lead!
The proposed Title IX expansions are litmus tests to leftwing loyalty, meaning that leftwing school districts and states will be quick to attempt enforcement of these new “civil liberties” on their school children.
The federal government will sure to add pressure on conservative districts like those in Florida — pressuring them to bow to the new ‘woke’ sexualized ideology of the left.
SEE HOW CONSERVATIVE STATES ARE ALREADY FIGHTING BACK AGAINST TRANSGENDER INFILTRATION INTO AMERICA’S SCHOOL DISTRICTS!
The Hill has already begun running attacks against Florida’s conservative politics, stating that “Florida is not known for its LGBTQ+ allyship.”
Propaganda pieces masquerading as news will only increase, pressuring lawmakers and school districts to bow to the leftwing premise that men can become women. We cannot allow this anti-science position to grip America’s school districts — endangering our nation's young girls.
*** This federal attempt to change the meaning of sexual difference is an affront to each state's liberties — a danger to girls everywhere — and it must end now! ***
SEND A MESSAGE TO YOUR STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION TODAY, DEMANDING THAT GIRLS SPORTS AND FEMALE PRIVACY BE PROTECTED AGAINST SEXUALIZED LEFTWING POLITICS!
Just last year, male prisoners pretended to be female in order to secure transfers to female-only prisons. This is a clear “gaming of the system” that anyone with common sense clearly sees.
Now more than ever, Americans must raise a consistent and unwavering voice that science and truth in Title IX matters and must not be changed. The future — and safety — of our girls depends on separate sports, showers, dorms, and other spaces reserved for sexual difference.
“LGBTQ+ allyship” means ruining sexual difference and eliminating the safety of female students because a boy claims to be a girl. We must stand firmly against this gender confusion.
The federal government continues to experiment with our children, but by adding your name to this message, we can push back with one powerful voice that our school districts must follow the science and protect female integrity!
Demand your State Board of Education follow the science: boys cannot become girls! SIGN NOW!
MORE INFORMATION:
Florida DOE blasted by The Hill for not being an “LGBTQ ally”
Male cheerleader chokes teammate after pretending to be a girl
22 sue the Biden Admin for tying school lunch money to transgender bathrooms
Prisoners request transfer to female prisons after claiming they're women
Photo: Wikimedia, sarahmirk. remixed
In response to the draconian mandates, hundreds of city employees and first responders then took to the streets to protest the imminent firing of another 4,000 city employees. “Essential workers are essential for a reason,” said NYC firefighter Paul Schweit in a tweeted video. “They protect the citizens of New York City because they signed up to be of service.”
RELATED: NYC first responders, others march against COVID-19 vax mandates as 4,000 face firing
“If you’re fired for standing up for something that you believe in, it’s just wrong. It’s un-American,” Schweit said.
The number of municipal employees fired for refusing the injection rose to 1,750 by July, when leftist Mayor Eric Adams released figures for the first time since March. A further 6,000 city staff were also reported to still be waiting for the outcome of a religious exemption.
Just days previously, that number rose yet again to 1,950 municipal workers fired since October 2021.
Millions of Americans remain hesitant to take the COVID-19 shots, which were developed and tested in a fraction of the time vaccines usually take under former President Donald Trump’s “Operation: Warp Speed” initiative, due in large part to the forced release of Pfizer data that the company had initially tried to keep from being released to the public until the year 2076.
Many Americans also have moral concerns over the injections, due to their incredibly intimate connection to abortion.
While COVID jab mandates have been widely pushed, the more impartial scientific community have long acknowledged the experimental shots don’t stop transmission of or infection with the virus.
Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released its latest data Friday, listing a total of 1,418,220 reports of adverse events following COVID-19 vaccines, which were submitted between Dec. 14, 2020, and Sept. 16, 2022, to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).
That figure includes a total of 31,074 reports of deaths and 258,480 serious injuries, including deaths, during the same time period.