Appeals court ruling affirms Bellingham’s vaccine mandate. Here’s what to know

A federal appeals court has affirmed that Bellingham’s firing of employees who refused to comply with a COVID-19 vaccine mandate did not violate the U.S. Constitution. The May 26 ruling upholds a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit brought by 18 former city workers.

FULL STORY: Appeals court affirms Bellingham’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate was constitutional

Here are key takeaways:

• Eighteen former Bellingham employees — including EMTs, police officers, firefighters, a senior inspector and a wastewater collections supervisor — were fired after refusing to comply with former Mayor Seth Fleetwood’s 2021 executive order requiring the COVID-19 vaccine.
• The plaintiffs sued in June 2024, calling the policy unlawful and arguing the vaccines were “neither safe nor effective” and that they had a “fundamental right to refuse investigational drugs without penalty or pressure.”
• The lawsuit alleged violations of due process, equal protection and privacy rights, and sought punitive damages for wrongful termination and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
• A district court dismissed the case with prejudice in January 2025. Two judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld that ruling on May 26 without oral argument.
• A separate 2022 lawsuit by two former Bellingham police officers — who were denied accommodations after receiving religious exemptions — was dismissed without prejudice in March and has not been appealed.

The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The full story in the link at top was reported, written and edited entirely by journalists.