A group of Chicago firefighters have joined the ranks of first responders asking the courts to intervene in blocking the state of Illinois and their employer – in this case, the city of Chicago – from forcing them to either be vaccinated against COVID-19 or risk losing their jobs.
On Oct. 21, the firefighters filed a complaint in Chicago federal court against the state of Illinois, Gov. JB Pritzker, the city of Chicago and Mayor Lori Lightfoot, claiming the state and city officials have trampled their constitutional rights in imposing vaccination mandates on first responders, like them.
They are represented by attorney Jonathan Lubin, of Skokie. Lubin is also representing a group of firefighters in west suburban Naperville, Illinois’ third largest city.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot
| Youtube screenshot
The new Chicago case levels many of the same accusations as the earlier suit filed by Lubin and firefighter clients in Naperville.
In the Chicago case, as in Naperville, the firefighters challenge the mandates imposed late this summer by the state and city governments.
In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot, without seeking approval from the Chicago City Council, issued an edict requiring all city workers, including police officers and firefighters, to furnish proof of their vaccination status through an online portal, and to submit to twice weekly COVID testing.
Those that do not would be placed on unpaid leave.
To date, the city of Chicago has estimated as many as 28% of all Chicago Fire Department employees have refused to post their vaccination status in the city portal, and submit to the COVID testing regime, according to published reports.
However, the complaint notes, at the end of this year, that “soft mandate” would convert to a “hard mandate” in which those who still refuse to be vaccinated could be terminated.
In the Chicago complaint, as in Naperville, the firefighters assert these vaccination mandates violate their fundamental rights to both bodily autonomy and due process, denying them the opportunity to object to the mandates in any significant way.
They further note that at no point up to now, even when the COVID-19 pandemic was objectively worse, did either the state or the city require vaccinations or regular testing for firefighters and other first responders, who have continued to work and complete their duties, even as the pandemic raged.
In the Chicago complaint, as in Naperville, many of the firefighter plaintiffs assert the state and city policies improperly refuse to give firefighters and paramedics the chance to exempt themselves by proving natural immunity, gained from prior infection.
In both complaints, the plaintiffs point to data, particularly from Israel, showing recovery from prior COVID infection may create an immunity equal to or even greater than that conferred solely through receiving any of the COVID vaccines approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
In the Naperville case, the Pritzker administration has pushed back on the claims to natural immunity, asserting the state places little stock in any scientific observations to this point demonstrating naturally-acquired immunity from prior infection is equivalent to that gained from vaccination.
In Chicago, the firefighters further note the city has also made it all but impossible to obtain even a religious exemption to the vaccination requirement. They say a number of firefighters have requested religious exemptions, but have been denied.
They assert this is a violation of firefighters’ First Amendment religious freedom rights, their rights under the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act, and their rights under Chicago city ordinance.
“The form for a religious exemption request requires the signature of a religious or a spiritual leader,” the Chicago firefighters said in their complaint.
“It requires employees to identify their religion, their religious belief that conflicts with their taking the COVID-19 vaccine and the ‘specific way that your religious beliefs prevent you from being vaccinated.
“It also asks when the employee began practicing this religion or following their beliefs, and whether their religious beliefs include objections to other vaccines or medications,” the firefighters said.
“Given that the requirements of this form are more onerous than the much less onerous requirements of either Title VII of the Civil Rights Act or the Free Exercise clause of the First Amendment, many plaintiffs believed that by filling out these forms they were setting themselves up for failure.”
The firefighters are seeking a federal court order declaring Gov. Pritzker and Mayor Lightfoot have exceeded their constitutional authority, and blocking the state of Illinois and the firefighters’ employer, city of Chicago, from enforcing either of the vaccination and testing mandates.
The Naperville lawsuit seeks similar relief, and remains pending, also in Chicago federal court.