8/13/2021- 8:11 p.m.
WASHINGTON – Justice Amy Coney Barrett rejected a request from Indiana University students for emergency relief.
The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to block a COVID-19 vaccine mandate at Indiana University.
The case is the first challenge to a vaccine mandate during the coronavirus pandemic.
The students filed the emergency appeal last week, asking the justices to block enforcement of the university’s requirement.
The appeal arrived at the nation’s highest court as a growing number of employers, restaurants and schools, responding to a rise in COVID-19 cases driven by the Delta variant, are requiring vaccinations.
“People who do not want to be vaccinated may go elsewhere,” 7th Circuit Judge Frank Easterbrook said in the decision siding with a lower court ruling that also refused to block the mandate.
Slightly less than 40% of the country’s adult population is not fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The school said 85% of its students, faculty and staff are approaching full vaccination.
In a statement by Judge Frank Easterbrook “people who do not want to be vaccinated may go elsewhere,” 7th He said in the decision siding with a lower court ruling that also refused to block the mandate.
Indiana’s public university said in May that students and faculty would be required to take the vaccine to attend classes in person this fall, with exceptions for religious objections, medical conditions
