The battle against vaccine mandates has prompted some state leaders to take new steps to protect Americans against the unconstitutional measures.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) filed legislation Thursday requiring private employers to guarantee medical or religious exemptions from COVID-19 vaccines. The proposed bill also recognizes natural immunity.
A medical exemption can be granted as long as a South Dakota physician signs a certificate stating that the immunization is not in the best interest of the employee.
In order to receive a religious exemption, employees must submit a statement indicating that obtaining the vaccine goes against their “beliefs or principles but not social, political, or economic philosophies or mere preference.”
Additionally, a natural immunity exemption may be claimed with proof of a positive test within the past six months.
“The COVID vaccination should be a choice, and we should reject the efforts that we are seeing in other parts of the country to divide us into two classes: vaccinated and unvaccinated,” said Gov. Noem in a statement. “Unvaccinated Americans are still Americans. We live in a free country – free to make our own decisions. In South Dakota, we will protect the liberty of our people to make the best decisions for themselves and their families.”
Meanwhile, Virginia’s new Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) issued his first opinion Friday, saying the state’s public universities cannot require students to get COVID-19 vaccines.
Miyares stated that colleges and universities don’t have the authority to mandate immunizations. This is because the state legislature has not passed a law specifically mandating COVID vaccines for students.
State lawmakers “specifically authorized” colleges and universities to assist health officials with administering vaccines, but they “did not grant such institutions power to impose vaccine requirements,” Miyares wrote in a letter to Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
BREAKING: I’ve issued my first ever Attorney General opinion – Virginia state universities cannot mandate the COVID-19 vaccine as a condition for enrollment or in-person attendance.
Check it out here pic.twitter.com/dliMICczCZ
— Jason Miyares (@JasonMiyaresVA) January 28, 2022
The measure reverses an opinion by Miyares’ predecessor, Mark Herring (D), who said state universities are authorized to mandate COVID vaccines.
“The opinion just says what the law in Virginia says,” Miyares told WDBJ News in an interview on Friday.
“And the law in Virginia, 23.1-800 of the code, says there are these six vaccines that are currently in the Code of Virginia that you have to have in order to attend and graduate from a public college and university in Virginia,” Miyares said. “The COVID vaccine is not listed on that six.”
According to the Attorney General’s website, “opinions represent the Attorney General’s analysis of current law based on his thorough research of existing statutes, the Virginia and United States Constitutions, and relevant court decisions. They are not ‘rulings’ and do not create new law, nor do they change existing law. Creating and amending laws is the responsibility of the General Assembly, not the Attorney General.”
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