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The US Supreme Court is refusing to stop government mandates that force Americans to receive the COVID-19 vaccine injection in the arm.
The Court rejected an emergency appeal from health workers in Maine.
A statewide mandate is forcing all health care workers to be vaccinated next week.
Democratic-appointed Justice Stephen Breyer handed down the order from the First Circuit, which covers Maine.
This isn’t the first time that a Democrat-appointed judge refused to hear an emergency appeal against the vaccine mandate.
Democratic-appointed Justice Sonia Sotomayor also refused to hear an emergency appeal from public school teachers opposed to a vaccine requirement in New York City.
Democratic Governor Janet Mills of Maine said, “Anyone who is placed in the care of a health care worker has the right to expect – as do their families – that they will receive high-quality, safe care from fully vaccinated staff.”
In an effort to block the mandate, the national religious organization Liberty Counsel has sued Mills.
Over 2,000 health care workers in the state of Maine are represented by Liberty Counsel and they do not want to be obliged to get vaccinated.
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A federal judge rejected the lawsuit and later, a federal appeals court affirmed the ruling. Liberty Counsel then filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court, which denied to hear it on Tuesday.
Most health care workers in Maine have complied with getting vaccinated, according to the Associated Press.
There is longstanding Supreme Court precedent that allows state governments to impose vaccine requirements. The right was upheld in 1905, when the court decided Massachusetts can require vaccines against smallpox.
Still, opponents of vaccine mandates have sought to challenge requirements being imposed in states across the country to combat the coronavirus pandemic. National and state lawmakers, mainly Republican, have heavily criticized mandates as an infringement of personal liberties.
