The Texas Supreme Court halted a coronavirus vaccine mandate for the San Antonio, Texas school district employees on Thursday hours before it was set to take effect.
Texas’s highest court sided with Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton by temporarily blocking the mandate but did not rule whether or not the district’s mandate or the governor’s vaccine mandate ban is legal, according to Texas Tribune.
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The mandate, which said that all employees of San Antonio Independent School District must be vaccinated by Friday, was a direct challenge to Abbott’s recent ban on vaccine mandates and was enacted in August by then-Superintendent Pedro Martinez prompting a lawsuit from Paxton.
“No local entity is above state law.” Paxton said in a press release responding to the ruling. “I am glad to see that the Supreme Court of Texas has again confirmed that the Governor’s decisions control at both the state and local levels. This decision should serve as a reminder to all Texas school districts that they should be using their limited funds on educating children and equipping teachers, not defending unlawful vaccine mandates.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order banning “any entity” in the state from enforcing a coronavirus vaccine mandate earlier this week.
“The COVID-19 vaccine is safe, effective, and our best defense against the virus, but should remain voluntary and never forced,” Abbott said in a press release Monday.
Abbott’s executive order prohibits “any entity” in the state from compelling an individual to receive a COVID-19 vaccine “who objects to such vaccination for any reason of personal conscience.”
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Vaccine mandates have become a controversial topic across the nation as various states, cities, and companies have implemented mandates for public workers as well as private citizens.
In September, President Biden announced his administration would implement a federal requirement that all companies with more than 100 employees require workers to be vaccinated. That rule has not officially been rolled out yet and many have questioned the legality of implementing such a rule.
Fox News’ Michael Lee contributed to this report
