A New York judge has sided with public employees who were fired for refusing to take the vaccine. In the wake of that decision the vaccine mandates for private employers will be lifted according to a vote of the NYC public health officials, but as of now the city is insisting on keeping in place the mandates for city workers as the City appeals the decision.

This is a huge blow to the COVID fascists who mistook their (perceived) responsibility to persuade people to protect themselves from COVID for a mandate to punish people whose risk assessment differed from theirs.

The New York state Supreme Court has reinstated all employees who were fired for not being vaccinated, ordering back pay and saying their rights had been violated.

The court found Monday that “being vaccinated does not prevent an individual from contracting or transmitting COVID-19.” New York City Mayor Eric Adams claimed earlier this year that his administration would not rehire employees who had been fired over their vaccination status.

NYC alone fired roughly 1,400 employees for being unvaccinated earlier this year after the city adopted a vaccine mandate under former Mayor Bill de Blasio.

In its face this decision could apply to other COVID inspired mandates, such as vaccine passports, since they are all based upon the same flawed reasoning that inspired the vaccine mandate.

The Courts verdict is sweeping. Not only does the judge deny that the government had the right to impose the vaccine mandate, he also eviscerated the reasoning behind it.

In others words he reasoned from evidence that even were the state allowed to mandate the vaccine in principle, the vaccine itself cannot actually accomplish the public policy goal of preventing the spread of the disease. This ruling on the facts, not just the law, punches a hole the size of the Lincoln Tunnel through the vaccine mandate proponents. Of course, this decision must stand up to the scrutiny of higher courts.

The city is maintaining the public employee mandate but dropping the mandate for private employers. The reasoning for both is the same. Perhaps there is a concern that the city could be liable for damages to private sector employees if the vaccine mandate is ultimately ruled arbitrary and capricious, as it has been by this judge.

Top New York City health leaders voted Tuesday to rescind the strictest-in-nation COVID vaccine mandate implemented by former Mayor Bill de Blasio in the waning days of his administration, the last signoff needed to end the program next week. Vaccine mandates for high-risk extracurricular activities in schools will end, too.

Both votes were unanimous. The rules will expire on Tuesday, Nov. 1, in accordance with Mayor Eric Adams’ late September announcement. At that point, private employers will have the option to keep the mandate if they want, but it won’t be required any longer by city health ordinance.

Staying in effect, though, will be the vaccine mandate for tens of thousands of municipal workers, many of whom have expressed frustration they must comply with protocol no longer considered necessary outside the public domain.

Adams, who kept the private-sector mandate in place when he took office earlier this year despite protest, said in late September the private rule would end on Nov. 1. He insisted, though, that the city’s workforce of more than 300,000 employees continue to lead by example and kept the municipal order in place. It’s not clear when that might end.

The Democrat dropped the vaccine requirement for professional athletes in late March as vaccine controversy surrounded Nets’ Kyrie Irving, drawing ire from businesses who cried double standard.

It’s not clear how many private-sector employees lost their jobs over the mandate, though, or whether they may not be eligible to get them back now that it’s over. Asked directly about the municipal mandate, which led to the termination of more than 1,500 city employees at the time of his September announcement, Adams said he didn’t have an end date.

In any case, the city has already begun the process of appealing the decision to a higher court, and has attacked the judge’s ruling.

Porzio has ruled similarly cases in the past, and he is quickly becoming go-to judge for lawyers representing city employees.

And as it has in the past, the city is appealing. Until that court rules, the vaccine mandate remains in effect.

A spokesman with the law department released the following statement:

“The city strongly disagrees with this ruling as the mandate is firmly grounded in law and is critical to New Yorkers’ public health. We have already filed an appeal. In the meantime, the mandate remains in place as this ruling pertains solely to the individual petitioners in this case. We continue to review the court’s decision, which conflicts with numerous other rulings already upholding the mandate.”

The characterization of this ruling as from the Supreme Court of New York is confusing. Apparently Porzio is on the Supreme Court of his county, not the state–a distinction of which I have never heard before. Thus this decision does not appear to have come from the highest court in New York, even though the title of the court is “Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Richmond.”

I admit that I find this very confusing, and will update this if I have made any errors due to this. I am no legal reporter.

Bottom line: a New York judge has sided with sanity. Since judges are elected in New York as in many states, clearly Porzio’s decision reflects a political as well as a legal position. He is known to be a conservative who often rules against the government, so I wouldn’t hold out a lot of hope that this decision will ultimately stand. Yet his reasoning seems sound and arguments persuasive, so he has at least provided more ammo to those of us fighting against public health tyranny.