Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) doubled down on his position that if public universities want to mandate COVID-19 vaccines, they must wait until the General Assembly passes a law to that effect.
“The COVID-19 vaccine is a critical tool in our fight against COVID-19, and it could save your life. The Attorney General has been vaccinated , has received the booster, and he encourages everyone to get the vaccine,” Miyares’ spokeswoman Victoria LaCivita told The Virginia Star. “He also promised to be an Attorney General that calls balls and strikes – and according to Virginia law, only the General Assembly can enact a statute that requires the COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of enrollment or in-person attendance, as it has with six other vaccines.”
On Thursday, The Star reported that most of Virginia’s public universities abandoned their COVID-19 vaccine mandates and weekly testing requirements for unvaccinated students after Miyares wrote a legal opinion saying that the universities do not have the authority to unilaterally mandate vaccines.
“Absent specific authority conferred by the General Assembly, public institutions of higher education in Virginia may not require vaccination against COVID-19 as a general condition of students’ enrollment or in-person attendance,” that opinion said.
A legal opinion does not carry any weight, other than guidance on how Miyares interprets Virginia law. However, it can be cited in lawsuits on the subject should they arise.
Notably, George Mason University faced backlash from students after it announced at the beginning of its spring semester that it would mandate booster shots. It later ended that policy, citing Miyares’ opinion rather than the student protests.
Virginia Tech, the University of Virginia (UVA), Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), and Radford University have all scrapped their mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy in order for students to be enrolled.
Some cited Miyares’ legal opinion, but others like UVA declared victory over the virus based on its student populations’ COVID-19 vaccination rates.
“Because we have such a small number of students who have not yet received the booster, we decided early last week – based on the advice of our student affairs team – that we will not disenroll students who have not yet received their booster, but will continue to encourage them to do so,” UVA President Jim Ryan said in a letter to the school community.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
