On Thursday in a press release, Tennessee Representative Scott DesJarlais (R-TN-04) announced that he sent a letter to President Joe Biden regarding his executive order mandating COVID-19 vaccines for federal workers and the effects it will have on Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) employees.
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Ohio Speaker of the House Bob Cupp has left little doubt about the future of bills that would give most Ohio workers and students the ability to refuse the COVID-19 vaccine by ordering a committee chair to cancel an upcoming meeting.
House Bill 435 failed to get a full vote Wednesday in the House for the second time in two weeks, with Cupp, R-Lima, saying the House was moving on to different things. He reiterated that message Thursday in a letter to Health Committee Chair Scott Lipps, R-Franklin, shutting down a seventh hearing on House Bill 248, the Vaccine Choice and Anti-Discrimination Act, a separate bill dealing with the same subjects.
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Leon County Circuit Judge Layne Smith has ruled against a business in Sarasota requesting to impose a vaccine mandate for its customers to enter.
The store, Bead Abode, requested that Smith grant their request for a mandate, but denied them saying Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ vaccine mandate ban “assures open markets.”
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Most Americans believe that the federal government is now doing too much, a new poll shows.
More than 50% of respondents in the Gallup survey, released Thursday, said that the government was too involved in things that should be left to individuals or private businesses, while 43% said that the government should involve itself more in trying to fix the country’s problems.
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Over 350 doctors from across Florida signed on to a letter asking the Florida Senate to scrutinize Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo. The doctors took part in the effort alongside the Committee to Protect Health Care (CPHC), as they outlined numerous questions regarding Ladapo’s positions.
Ladapo, upon announcing his appointment to the position, said Florida is “done with fear” and began a process of pushing back against universal mask mandates and vaccine mandates. He was appointed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and some DeSantis opponents called Ladapo “an anti-masker and a vaccine skeptic.”
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Wednesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist for Crom’s Commentary in studio to describe how the failed policies of Joe Biden’s administration will join the COVID response down the tubes.
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Every now and again, an otherwise arcane legal topic suddenly becomes relevant to contemporary political debate. At that point, general commentary suddenly becomes filled with newly minted experts with strong positions on what is typically a nuanced issue. Thus, at various points during the past decade, Twitter saw a flood of hitherto undisclosed connoisseurs on the intricacies of the Logan Act, a constitutionally problematic piece of legislation that emerged from the same 18th century administration that brought us the infamous Alien and Sedition Acts. In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, some observers suddenly expressed deep-seated opinions on the Jones Act, a complex piece of maritime law most people had probably never heard of prior to 2017.
So it seems to be with Jacobson v. Massachusetts, the previously obscure 116-year-old precedent – it barely warrants a footnote in most constitutional law treatises – that people have taken to citing whenever anyone questions the legality or constitutionality of vaccine mandates in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But Jacobson is not some sort of argumentative checkmate. If the decision were actually taken to the lengths that some of its proponents suggest, it would be a truly terrifying ruling.
Although I drafted most of this article before encountering Josh Blackman’s excellent law review article on Jacobson (available here), I did rely on it for some of the procedural history of the case, as well as some of the cases from the pandemic that relied upon Jacobson. It is well worth a read for anyone else interested in learning more about the case.
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Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Mayor Andy Ogles of Maury County in studio to discuss Texa’s vaccine executive order suggesting Tennessee should follow the template.
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Allen West, the former chair of the Texas Republican Party who is primarying Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, is hospitalized with COVID-19 but said Sunday that he was “doing great.”
Allen West told the Associated Press that he had “no complaints” and was “just relaxing” in a hospital in Plano, Texas. West said on Twitter that both he and his wife, Angela, were hospitalized with the virus and that they underwent monoclonal antibody infusion therapy.
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An Ohio bill that would end COVID-19 vaccination mandates and nearly passed the House last week is back in front of another committee with health care groups from around the state lined up in opposition.
House Bill 435, the Vaccine Fairness Act, received hearings in front of the House Labor and Commerce Committee on Wednesday and Thursday.
The legislation would provide broad exemptions for COVID-19 vaccination mandates from public and private employers and schools. It also would stop any entity from mandating a COVID-19 vaccine that has not been fully approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and prohibit government-ordered vaccine passports.
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Republican Attorney General Eric Schmitt of Missouri warned that vaccine mandates nationwide could lead to a greater police officer shortage even as crime surges.
Schmitt, Missouri’s chief law enforcement officer, said he is worried that mandates will only worsen the wave of police officer retirement triggered by the “defund the police” movement last year.
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An Ohio bill that would give most Ohio workers and students the ability to refuse COVID-19 vaccination mandates was poised to pass the House on Wednesday before Republicans sent it back to the House Rules and Reference Committee.
House Bill 435, The Vaccine Fairness Act, would stop any entity from mandating a COVID-19 vaccine that has not been fully approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and would prohibit government-ordered vaccine passports.
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Friday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, guest hosts Grant Henry and Ben Cunningham talk in studio about the need for Tennessee’s General Assembly to have a special session and Lt. McNally’s hesitancy.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced this week the state will be imposing $5,000 fines per violation toward cities and local municipalities that implement vaccine mandates for their employers.
“People that have put in 10, 15, 20 years, and now they’re just going to get cast aside by some onerous mandate? That is wrong, and so we let it be known today, we’re going to be enforcing Florida law against that,” DeSantis said.
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Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed CEO and President of Job Creators Network, Alfredo Ortiz to the newsmakers line to talk about his ongoing bus tour promoting small business.
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In a Tuesday press release, former congressman and Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Renacci blasted Gov. Mike DeWine (R) over what Renacci sees as a failure to stand up to the Biden Administration and fight COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
“We have seen Mike DeWine promise one thing, yet do another, often at the expense of Ohioans – his tepid response to Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate is no different,” Renacci said in the release. “We simply cannot and must not trust Mike DeWine to lead our fight against Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate.”
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After Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) implemented a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for state employees, including the Washington State Patrol, Arizona’s Department of Public Safety (AZDPS) is taking advantage of what could be an opportunity to hire new staff.
AZDPS is spending ten days in the pacific northwestern state recruiting new employees to Arizona, which has outlawed mask mandates and does not have a vaccine mandate for state employees.
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Monday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed All-Star Panelist Crom Carmichael in studio who compared the militarization of the U.S. government in response to COVID19 vaccine mandates to that of Nazi Germany.
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Few people have fought as hard against COVID vaccine mandates than Ohio State Representative Ron Ferguson.
Ferguson sat down with Campus Reform to discuss his controversial amendment to House Bill 244, which Governor Mike DeWine signed into law in July and takes effect October 13.
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A White House senior advisor said Thursday that Joe Biden is prepared to “run over” Republican governors who “stand in his way” on vaccine mandates.
Following Biden’s shocking, widely-panned authoritarian speech Thursday afternoon, multiple Republican-led states announced plans to sue the Regime over its “unconstitutional” mandate forcing businesses with more than 100 employees compel vaccinations.
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Kentucky’s Republican legislature overrode the state’s Democratic governor late Thursday and repealed a statewide public school mask mandate.
The move, reported by the Louisville Courier Journal, came on the final day of a special session called by Gov. Andy Beshear. The mask mandate was repealed as cases in the state increased for the 10th straight week, and as over 30% of Kentucky’s new cases Thursday were in people 18 and younger, according to state data.
The legislature last month moved to significantly limit Beshear’s pandemic-related power, an action that was upheld by multiple judges in the state.
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Just three weeks after Gov. Doug Ducey announced that school districts issuing mask mandates or requiring vaccinated students to quarantine would be penalized by diverting money to students to use as school vouchers to attend elsewhere, demand has exceeded the $20 million he allotted by twice the amount. Ducey announced on August 17 that money the state received from the federal government through the pandemic-generated American Rescue Plan to boost per-pupil spending would not go to any of those schools.
Ducey made the announcement immediately following a demand on August 11 from Republican state legislators to take action regarding those school districts. They suggested that Ducey could withhold federal funds and offer vouchers, which he did, but he did not go so far as following their recommendation of suing the school districts.
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A judge has temporarily halted a mandate implemented by Western Michigan University (WMU) requiring that all of its student-athletes are vaccinated.
Monday, WMU women’s soccer players Emily Dahl, Hannah Redoute, Bailey Korhorn and Morgan Otteson filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking relief from the school’s policy.
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With national attention riveted over the weekend on two major stories — the frantic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan amid its fall to the Taliban and category 4 Hurricane Ida slamming into the Louisiana coast — Big Tech and woke finance dramatically extended the reach of cancel culture with brazen moves to silence and harass three high-profile voices of political and scientific dissent: independent journalist Alex Berenson, popular conservative news and opinion website The Gateway Pundit, and Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.
On Saturday, Twitter permanently banned Alex Berenson, who has built a large social media following challenging public health establishment orthodoxy on COVID issues ranging from lockdown to vaccine mandates.
“The account you referenced has been permanently suspended for repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation rules,” a Twitter spokesperson responded to an inquiry from Fox News.
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday banned government-issued vaccine mandates despite the Food and Drug Administration’s recent approval of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine.
Abbott’s executive order applies to all government-run entities with the exception of nursing homes and assisted living facilities. “Vaccine requirements and exemptions have historically been determined by the legislature, and their involvement is particularly important to avoid a patchwork of vaccine mandates across Texas,” Abbott said in an accompanying statement.
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The American Medical Association (AMA) is calling for public and private vaccine mandates.
“With the highly transmissible and more virulent Delta variant wreaking havoc and emergency departments once again overwhelmed, physicians and all frontline health care workers need help,” the AMA said. “The way to regain the upper hand in this fight is requiring vaccinations—specifically vaccine mandates.”
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In a keynote speech at a mid-August Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Global Health Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas, Democrat gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe said that it was imperative to “make life difficult” for Americans who are not vaccinated against COVID-19.
“We have 93 million Americans today that are not vaccinated. We need to do everything that we possibly can … And I tell my private businesses all the time, I hope you mandate vaccines for people coming in,” he said in his speech. “Until we make it hard for people get on planes or go to movie theaters, people just aren’t going to do it … We’re not going door to door, but you make life difficult. If you’re going to come to the HIMSS conference, you got to be vaccinated.”
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According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, more than 680 U.S. public and private colleges require students to get a coronavirus vaccine. This is a non-negotiable mandate for students to maintain enrollment status.
The vaccination edicts come even as the coronavirus has an extremely low mortality rate among college-aged students — CDC data attributes only 2.8 percent of coronavirus deaths to those under age 45. Regardless of this reality, those favoring mandated vaccines argue that schools already require students to provide proof of other vaccinations.
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In an interview with MSNBC on Tuesday, Anthony Fauci said that defeating the coronavirus is more important than Americans’ personal freedoms, and that every American should be forced to get a vaccine, the Daily Caller reports.
When asked by host Willie Geist, Fauci said that he supports vaccine mandates for teachers and all levels of schools, including colleges and universities, referring to the India Variant, also known as the “Delta Variant,” as a “major surge” that has led to a “critical” situation.
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Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday he supports efforts by local governments to mandate vaccinations for teachers against the novel coronavirus.
“I’m going to upset people on this but I think we should [mandate vaccinations for teachers]. I mean, we are in a critical situation now,” Fauci told MSNBC “We have had 615,000 deaths and we are in a major surge now as we’re going into the fall, into the school season. This is very serious business.”
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Despite the fact that many healthcare workers Butnationwide have taken to the streets to protest vaccine mandates, the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Health System has mandated that all of its employees must take the vaccine.
“All VCU and VCU Health System employees will be required to report COVID-19 vaccinations,” the university announced. “If you have already reported your vaccination, there is no action required on your part. If applicable, you may submit a request for a medical or religious exemption. Additional information is forthcoming from the university and health system about the medical and religious exemption process.”
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Though the COVID-19 vaccine does not stop the transmission or contraction of the virus, students, faculty, and staff at Grand Valley State University (GVSU) will be forced to take the experimental jab in order to return to campus this fall.
Everyone on campus is expected to receive the shot by September 30, WZZM reported. The school will provide numerous opportunities to get vaccinated at free at pop-up clinics.
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Governor Ralph Northam announced Thursday that all state employees will be required to show proof that they are fully vaccinated or take COVID-19 tests every week. Local governments and private employers are considering similar moves
“Governor Northam’s action comes as the highly transmissible Delta variant is driving up cases across the Commonwealth and around the country, primarily among unvaccinated people,” Northam’s press release explains.
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Friday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael in studio to discuss the Biden administration’s inconsistent messaging.
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New Hampshire will be limited in requiring people to be vaccinated against COVID-19 under a new law signed by Gov. Chris Sununu.
The “medical freedom” law which passed the Republican-controlled Legislature on a largely party-line vote, states that people have the “natural, essential and inherent right to bodily integrity, free from any threat or compulsion by government to accept an immunization.”
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Just days after Gov. Mike DeWine (R) signed HB 244, banning colleges and public schools from forcing students to take the COVID-19 vaccine, one Ohio lawmaker wants to ban mask mandates in public schools too.
“Senate Bill 209, introduced by state Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Powell, is unlikely to impact school districts’ decisions for the fall, as lawmakers are on break until after most schools return to class,” News 5 reported. “SB 209 would prohibit the state school board, the Ohio Department of Education or individual school districts’ boards of education from requiring anyone to wear facial coverings in a public education setting.”
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Facebook’s “fact-checkers” cannot agree on the legality of university COVID vaccine mandates.
Disagreement about the legality of the COVID vaccines is understandable — The College Fix explored this topic several weeks ago in our own article, but the problem is that a Facebook fact-check on an article can lead to reduced distribution.
And enough strikes against a page can lead to a permanent ban. The College Fix has seen this firsthand, after Facebook overlords punished us for sharing the comments of an epidemiologist who made a prediction about what would happen if lockdowns were lifted.
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The Tennessee legislature stalled on legislation prohibiting mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for K-12 students. The bill was removed from the Health Committee calendar last month. In the Senate, it was last referred back to the Calendar Committee after making it to the floor on Monday.
State Senator Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald) and State Representative Rusty Grills (R-Newbern) were the sponsors on the bill. Hensley’s legislative assistant Allison Wilson clarified with The Tennessee Star that the Senate won’t be hearing the bill this year.
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Even if the state adopts a bill prohibiting mandatory COVID-19 vaccines for K-12 students, it would only last two years. That is, according to the latest amendment to HB 1421. The amendment rendered the current status of the bill into a proposed sunset law during Tuesday’s House Health Committee hearing.
The committee member behind the amendment, State Representative Robin Smith (R-Hixon), asserted that it would give the FDA enough time to approve the vaccine for regular use – not just emergency use.
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Monday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed State Senator (R) Janice Bowling to the newsmakers line to talks about her legislative priorities including bills pertaining to aborted human remains and fiber internet to rural Tennesseans.
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Tennessee lawmakers are keeping their options open when it comes to mandatory vaccinations during a current or imminent pandemic. Although community members and advocacy groups have been fighting for their right to choose when it comes to their medical decisions during government-declared emergencies, most lawmakers haven’t been responsive.
At the time of press, the amendment hasn’t been uploaded to the General Assembly website. However, The Tennessee Star obtained a copy of the amendment, included below:
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