TERRE HAUTE, Ind.--The appeal for students who wanted to stop the IU vaccine requirement has been denied. The university can still require the vaccine for students, faculty and staff, while allowing for exemptions for religious and some medical circumstances.
“If conditions of higher educations may include surrendering property and following instructions about what to read and write, it is hard to see a greater problems with medical conditions that help students remain safe when learning,” read the ruling from the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
That court was responding to an appeal from eight IU students and their attorney, Jim Bopp, Jr., of Terre Haute, who filed the class action suit in the hope of having the requirement rendered unenforceable.
Bopp and the students claimed the requirement violated their 14th Amendment rights. A lower court disagreed and Bopp filed an appeal in July.
“A university will have trouble operating when each student fears that everyone else may be spreading disease,” said the ruling. “Few people want to return to remote educations-and we do not think that the Constitution forces the distance-learning approach on a university that believes vaccination (or masks and frequent testing of the unvaccinated) will make in-person operations safe enough”.
