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Judge grants hearing to reconsider Mayor de Blasio's vaccine mandate for NYC municipal workers

Coronavirus update for NYC

ByEyewitness News WABC logo

Wednesday, December 8, 2021

Judge grants hearing to reconsider NYC's mandate for municipal workers

A judge has granted a hearing to consider a restraining order on New York City's vaccine mandate that applies to all municipal workers.

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- A judge in New York on Tuesday granted a hearing to consider a restraining order on the city's vaccine mandate that applies to all municipal workers, including police officers and firefighters.

The hearing, granted by Judge Frank Nervo, will determine if a temporary restraining order on the mandate is warranted and gives the city until next Monday to respond, with the hearing scheduled for following day.

The hearing comes in the case of NYPD Detective Anthony Marciano, who said he "developed and retains a natural immunity to COVID, as demonstrated by recent blood testing" and is refusing voluntary consent to the COVID vaccination.

"It is abundantly clear by now that the Vaccination Order is not a limited emergency health measure to prevent the spread of COVID by city employees having significant contact with the public, or by those city workers in contact with a particularly vulnerable population. The Vaccination Order applies with equal force to City employees having little or no contact with the public, and does not apply to non-City employees who may have extensive public contact," the lawsuit said.

While the hearing doesn't impact the mandate the mayor announced Monday for private-sector employees, legal challenges are also expected to be filed against that mandate.

It is the first COVID vaccine mandate for the private sector in the nation. Legal challenges will outlast the remaining term of Mayor Bill de Blasio.

On Tuesday, a Staten Island-based lawyer said he will file a class action lawsuit against the private-sector mandate, on behalf of all unvaccinated workers across the city.

"We are going to be filing a class action lawsuit, we received dozens dozens of calls yesterday and dozens more today, on behalf of any employee," attorney Louis Gelormino said. "Anybody that works in NYC that has a job in NYC, this could be from 16 years old to 75 years old, anybody that works in NYC that doesn't want to get the vaccination, we are going to be filing a class action lawsuit on their behalf."

This new mandate, is scheduled to take effect just four days before he leaves office.