The U.S. judiciary system is doing a poor job of stopping, blocking, and delaying COVID-19 vaccine coercion, but workers who have toiled throughout the pandemic are using their voices to pressure companies into laying off of forcing the jab.
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer declined on Tuesday to block Maine Democrat Gov. Janet Mills’ vaccine mandate for health care and nursing home employees. Earlier this year, new Justice Amy Coney Barrett also refused to intervene when students at Indiana University asked the highest court in the land to give them some relief from their educational institution’s vaccine requirements for the fall 2021 semester.
Even small court wins, such as last week when a federal judge ruled that New York must allow health care employers to consider religious exemptions for workers and when another judge in Texas ruled that American Airlines couldn’t put employees waiting for exemptions on unpaid leave, are overshadowed by other judiciary decisions reinforcing the medical coercion in areas as private as family visitation rights.
The courts’ lack of vigor for reinforcing personal freedom has resulted in the firing of many people, but workers are determined to fight back. Employees all across the nation have protested, and some of their efforts are being rewarded.
While Delta Airlines continues to sell the lie (some conservatives are buying it) that they aren’t enforcing a mandate even though they continue to charge unvaccinated workers $200 monthly, Southwest Airlines walked backed its pledge to begin putting workers who applied for vaccine exemptions on unpaid leave in December after the company suffered thousands of flight cancellations that damaged the U.S. domestic travel market for days.
Southwest and the Southwest Pilots Association categorically denied that the thousands of flight cancellations, delays, and general staffing problems were due to their new vaccine policy, but sources told The Federalist that part of the airline’s operational meltdown was due to pilots taking their paid sick leave shortly before they were scheduled to be fired.
It’s not a complete victory for Southwest pilots and staff, but it does buy workers who are hopefully waiting for approved medical and religious exemptions the opportunity to keep their jobs a little longer.
This type of resistance is growing and spreading from coast to coast. The San Francisco Department of Public Health forced an In-N-Out location in Fisherman’s Wharf to temporarily shut down after the restaurant refused to check the vaccination status of customers.
“We refuse to become the vaccination police for any government,” In-N-Out Chief Legal & Business Officer Arnie Wensinger told Newsweek. “We fiercely disagree with any government dictate that forces a private company to discriminate against customers who choose to patronize their business. This is a clear government overreach.”
Seattle police officers and firefighters also caused a stir on Tuesday when they served food to the homeless community and returned their boots to City Hall after being fired for refusing to get the COVID-19 jab.
Seattle PD and Seattle Fire walking up the stairs of Seattle City Hall to turn in their boots. These a excellent officers and firefighters with years of service that truly can’t be replaced. pic.twitter.com/OmfrMhCNpc
— Katie Daviscourt🇺🇸 (@KatieDaviscourt) October 19, 2021
They join the ranks of an unknown number of Chicago police officers who lost their paychecks after they refused to comply with Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s vaccine mandate. Their absence comes during another Windy City violent crime spree.
Source: The Federalist
