Montana Supreme Court upholds vaccine discrimination law after lengthy legal battle
2021 law banning discrimination based on a person’s vaccination status was just upheld by the Montana Supreme Court. House Bill 702 makes it illegal for employers or most businesses to discriminate against someone based on whether they’ve received a vaccine or have what’s called an immunity passport. The legal challenge comes from a law firm in Sydney which argued the law violated constitutional rights, including equal protection and a clean and healthful environment. After years of hearings and appeals, Montana’s highest court upheld nearly all of the law, reversing an earlier ruling that struck one section dealing with emergency use vaccines. Ultimately, the Supreme Court in a seven to nothing decision uh upheld the law as constitutional. The despite several attempts to throw stuff against the wall, uh that the court got this one right. Justice Beth Baker wrote the unanimous opinion, saying the law’s provisions were reasonably connected to its stated purpose and gave the public fair notice of what it covered. I think it sends a message that you can’t just run to the courts to overturn something you don’t like from the legislature, and we’ve had a habit of that for a long time in Montana. The ruling also affirmed that the district court properly dismissed several other constitutional claims. The Supreme Court said that while early procedural mistakes were made, they were later corrected and found no abuse of discretion in the lower court’s actions. Montana remains the first and only state in the nation with a law specifically banning discrimination based on vaccination status. Attorneys for the plaintiffs have not announced whether they’ll continue pursuing further legal challenges.
The Montana Supreme Court has upheld the state’s 2021 vaccine discrimination law, ruling unanimously that the measure is constitutional and restoring a provision related to vaccines authorized for emergency use.
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