Sotomayor Rejects Request to Block NYC Covid Vaccine Mandate for Teachers

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Justice Sonia Sotomayor rejected a request on Friday from New York City teachers seeking to block the city’s vaccine mandate for teachers.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the mandate in August, ultimately setting the deadline as 5 p.m. today to get the first dose or face unpaid leave up until September 2022.

A group of four teachers and teaching assistants petitioned the Supreme Court on Thursday, but Sotomayor turned down their request without comment — much like Justice Amy Coney Barrett rejecting a similar request from students at Indiana University.

Rachel Maniscalco, one of the court petitioners, said that “the mayor needs to understand that we all feel very much betrayed.”

The vast majority of school staff and teachers have been vaccinated and are not affected by the mandate, according to reporting from New York’s ABC News affiliate, WABC-TV.

According to WABC-TV, de Blasio’s office said 90% of public school staff are vaccinated, meaning that 14,800 are not. And the Department of Education said that 93% of teachers are vaccinated as are 98% of principals, leaving about 5,000 teachers and 32 principals who have not been vaccinated.

De Blasio defended the mandate, saying: “A lot of people would have held back, and our schools would have been less safe. Mandates work. They make us safer. I would urge every mayor in America – do it now, get those vaccine mandates in place ahead of the cold weather.”