Federal judge says Indiana University can require COVID-19 vaccines, boosting hopes for other colleges

Indiana University
(Image credit: Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

U.S. District Judge Damon Leichty's ruling that Indiana University can require students to submit proof they have been vaccinated against COVID-19 before returning to campus was a blow to anti-vaccine activists and a welcome sign for the hundred of other public and private colleges and universities with similar vaccine requirements. The California State University and University of Connecticut systems are awaiting federal rulings from similar lawsuits.

Federal courts have consistently upheld vaccination requirements at K-12 schools and in workplaces, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday, citing Arizona State University public health professor James Hodge, but this case is among the first to tackle COVID-19 vaccine mandates at public universities.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Students were also given the option to remain off-campus if they declined to get vaccinated, Leichty noted, and most of the plaintiffs were granted exemptions from the vaccine requirement, allowing them to attend in-person if they wore a mask indoors and got tested regularly — requirements the student plaintiffs rejected. He also looked at the safety data for the vaccines, still under emergency authorization approval, and found little serious risk. "No one should blithely dismiss the call for further investigation, but the students' case isn't strong today," Leichty wrote.

Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.