Gov. John Bel Edwards this week overruled a legislative committee’s rejection of a rule requiring K-12 students to get the COVID-19 vaccine during the 2022-23 school year, prompting other state officials to file a lawsuit in East Baton Rouge.
In a Dec. 14 letter to the chairman of the House Committee on Health and Welfare, Edwards expressed disapproval of the panel’s recent vote against adding the coronavirus vaccine to the immunization schedule for Louisiana schoolchildren. The Louisiana Department of Health proposed the new rule.
Edwards’ action prompted Attorney General Jeff Landry on Wednesday to file a lawsuit on behalf of committee member Raymond Crews in the 19th Judicial District Court in East Baton Rouge.
“It is disappointing the governor forced us into court,” Landry said in a statement emailed to the Louisiana Record.
But Edwards said in his letter that the dangers facing Louisiana residents due to the pandemic make the rule essential to prevent loss of life.
“First and foremost, I am allowing this rule to go into effect because it will save lives and will help Louisiana to emerge from this pandemic,” the governor wrote. “As of today, over 770,000 people in Louisiana have tested positive for COVID-19. Tragically, we have lost almost 15,000 people to COVID-19 in the last 22 months. This includes 19 children under 18 years old.”
The Louisiana statute that underpins the governor’s power to reject the oversight panel’s vote against the COVID-19 rule violates the state constitution by giving Edwards the means to effectively make law unilaterally, the lawsuit states.
“Unless the gubernatorial disapproval procedure … is declared unconstitutional and its application enjoined, the executive branch – not the legislative – will continue to have the right to unlawfully exercise legislative authority by promulgating rules through executive branch agencies, with no meaningful oversight by the legislature unless the governor chooses not to overrule the determination of the legislative branch,” the complaint says.
The lawsuit urges the court to issue a permanent injunction that bars Edwards from using the statute in question to overrule legislative votes on executive policies.
“Plaintiffs request and are entitled to a declaration that the new rule is unconstitutional and a permanent injunction prohibiting enforcement of the new rule by the governor and any persons in active concert or participation with him.”