A federal judge in Montana has blocked the state’s law that prevents employers, including healthcare facilities, from mandating vaccinations against communicable diseases, including COVID-19.
“The public interest in protecting the general populace against vaccine-preventable diseases in healthcare settings using safe, effective vaccines is not outweighed by the hardships experienced to accomplish that interest,” U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy stated in the ruling he handed down late last week.
The Montana legislature passed a bill in 2021 that would prevent employers from discriminating against workers based on their vaccination status. Before signing the bill, Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) asked lawmakers to amend it to allow long-term care facilities to require workers to get vaccinated if failing to do so meant the facility would lose federal funding under a federal directive.
The Montana Medical Association, the Montana Nurses Association, clinics and immunocompromised patients all filed a suit against the state last year, challenging the law.
Molloy ruled the law violates the Americans With Disabilities Act because immunocompromised patients would be vulnerable if treated at a healthcare facility where employees were not vaccinated. The judge also ruled the law violated the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act by failing to keep the workforce free from recognizable hazards.
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudson (R) is studying the opinion to determine next steps, according to a spokesperson.
Knudson is leading attorneys general in 21 other states in a legal challenge against the CMS COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers. They claim the vaccine does not prevent the spread of the virus, breakthrough infections and that the vaccines themselves are not entirely risk-free.
