(Photo: Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images)
Students from Indiana University have filed a lawsuit against their college in an effort to fight back against its COVID-19 vaccine requirement for the fall semester.
In the recently filed lawsuit, eight students argue that the vaccine requirement violates the Fourteenth Amendment, which reads that no state shall “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”
The students are suing the school’s board of trustees and also argue the right to reject medical treatment and violation of state law against coronavirus vaccine passports. They argue that as virus restrictions are lifted and the outbreak recedes, vaccinations at the school aren’t necessary.
“As the numbers continue to decline, such draconian measures as requiring all students to be vaccinated is not reasonable,” the suit reads, according to USA Today.
The university has four exceptions to the vaccine requirement: religious beliefs, medical exemptions such as an allergy with documentation, medical deferrals and if a student is fully online.
Six of the students pursuing the lawsuit have received exemptions based on religious beliefs.
If a student doesn’t meet the requirement, they will see their class registration canceled, their student ID access terminated, access to IU systems terminated and will not be allowed to participate in any on-campus activity.
University spokesperson Chuck Carney said the university is confident it will prevail in the case.
“As part of IU’s response to the ongoing pandemic, the vaccine mandate is helping to support a return to safe and more normal operations this fall,” Carney said, according to USA Today.