A D.C. Superior Court judge struck down Mayor Muriel Bowser’s order that city government workers are subject to discipline if they aren’t vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Judge Maurice Ross ruled Thursday that the mayor doesn’t have such authority, saying she presently is “permanently enjoined from implementing, imposing, and/or enforcing the COVID-19 mandate,” WTOP reported.
The D.C. police union challenged Bowser’s order arguing that officers shouldn’t be required to get inoculated against the virus.
Ross specifically ruled that police department personnel must be reimbursed if they lost any pay due to disciplinary actions due to Bowser’s mandate.
Police union chairman Gregg Pemberton called the ruling a “significant victory” that “protects the rights of our members and ensured that they will no longer be forced to receive the COVID-19 vaccine against their will.”
“Now, all of our members can go back to doing the necessary work of trying to protect our communities from crime and violence without unlawful threats of discipline and termination,” Pemberton said, WTOP reported.