Conservative state lawmakers are moving to block universities from requiring returning students to be vaccinated

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Conservative state lawmakers are moving to block universities from requiring returning students to be vaccinated

Fri, 2021-06-25 10:39 — mike kraft

College vaccine mandates rile GOP states The red states’ moves potentially set up court fights over who has the power to police campus health just as schools prepare to reopen for in-person instruction. Ben Leonard POLITICO

Conservative state lawmakers are moving to block public and private universities from requiring returning students to have proof of Covid vaccinations or get the vaccine itself, in a push that could complicate President Joe Biden’s effort to get shots to young adults.

Executive orders or legislation in states like Arizona and Florida ban universities from mandating students show proof of vaccination status and come as the more transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus is surging. College-age Americans have the lowest vaccination rates and are least likely to make plans to get a shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The states’ moves potentially set up a series of court fights over who has the power to police campus health just as schools prepare to reopen for in-person instruction. Already, a group of Indiana University students has sued over the school’s fall vaccine requirement, forcing the state's attorney general to weigh in. The battles could extend to as many as 16 states because some of the bans don’t explicitly single out universities and instead target “governmental entities” that could apply to state colleges.

“It's likely to be broadly interpreted, and I suspect universities will be cautious in these states,” said Dorit Reiss, vaccine law expert at the University of California Hastings College of the Law.

Universities in Democratic-controlled states have adopted vaccine mandates with little controversy. And Biden’s administration is redoubling efforts to persuade younger Americans to seek out the shot as it faces the strong likelihood of missing a goal of providing at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose to 70 percent of adults by July 4.

The resistance to vaccine rules on campus harks back to last fall's fight over mask orders that pitted Biden against 16 Republican governors after his election victory. The governors, whose states were engulfed with new Covid cases, cited a similar rationale in rejecting Biden’s bid to build consensus around mask-wearing and other basic public health strategies.

Arizona has been a flashpoint for the battle over college vaccination requirements. Republican Gov. Doug Ducey last week issued an executive order blocking vaccine mandates on campuses after publicly jousting with Arizona State University over a vaccination plan the school rolled out in mid-June. That plan would have required non-vaccinated students to wear masks on campus and be tested up to twice a week while exempting vaccinated students from such rules. ...

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