The Louisiana Supreme Court on Friday rejected a lawsuit by healthcare workers challenging the state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Chief Justice John L. Weimer ruled that Louisiana’s at-will employment laws allow employers to terminate employees for failing to comply with the vaccine mandate.
The ruling reads that the medical consent law only applies to situations in which there is a relationship between a patient and a health care worker but not in the case of a private employer and employee, The Advocate reported.
“There is no allegation or even the barest insinuation that Employer is a state actor; indeed, the parties in this case stipulated that Employer is a private actor,” the ruling reads.
In August 2021, employees of Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport and Ochsner-Lafayette General filed lawsuits against the hospitals, arguing that Louisiana’s medical consent law prevented their employers from implementing a vaccine mandate.
