A federal appeals court recently ruled that Indiana University can proceed with its plan to require students and employees to get vaccinated for COVID-19.
“People who do not want to be vaccinated may go elsewhere,” Judge Frank Easterbrook wrote in the decision. He said that the university would have trouble operating if students were afraid that those around them were spreading disease.
The court ruled that colleges may decide what’s necessary to keep students safe after students from the university filed a lawsuit against their college in an effort to fight back against its COVID-19 vaccine requirement.
Eight students argued 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’ lawyer, James Bopp Jr., said he would be filing an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, according to USA Today.
“Once again, the court has affirmed our legitimate public health interest in assuring the safety of our students, faculty and staff, and we are excited to welcome our community back for the fall semester,” IU spokesman Chuck Carney said in a statement to USA Today.