Supreme Court rejects request to block Indiana University's COVID-19 vaccine mandate

(Image credit: Al Drago/Getty Images)

published 13 August 2021

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett on Thursday rejected a request from eight Indiana University students trying to block the school's COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

In May, Indiana University announced it was requiring all students, faculty, and staff members get vaccinated, with religious and medical exemptions. Of the eight students who sued, six have received a religious exemption and a seventh is qualified but has not yet applied, The Washington Post reports. Barrett oversees emergency petitions submitted from the school's region, and in her decision, did not give a reason for the rejection or mention referring the matter to her fellow justices.

This was the first case related to vaccination requirements to make it to the Supreme Court, after a federal district judge and panel of the Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit rejected the request. In the 7th Circuit opinion, Judge Frank Easterbrook wrote that "each university may decide what is necessary to keep other students safe in a congregate setting. Vaccinations protect not only the vaccinated persons but also those who come in contact with them, and at a university close contact is inevitable."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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