Right here’s a rundown of the authorized challenges to New York’s vaccine mandate.

New York’s mandate that greater than 650,000 hospital and nursing house staff be vaccinated towards Covid-19 took impact this week, prompting tens of hundreds of holdouts to get their first dose. However the mandate has additionally prompted lawsuits throughout the state by nurses and others who’re in search of exemptions.

In courtrooms from Manhattan to Utica, judges are weighing whether or not to carve out exemptions that may cowl hundreds, and even tens of hundreds, of well being care staff. In the event that they do, they might go away hospitals and nursing houses extra weak to coronavirus outbreaks, well being care officers say.

Alternately, if the mandate is upheld and suppliers fireplace important numbers of unvaccinated staff, some establishments might face workers shortages — though up to now business officers say that most seem able to handle limited job losses.

A number of fits accuse New York of violating spiritual freedoms. These have largely been introduced on behalf of Christian well being care staff who say their faith-based opposition to abortion requires them to keep away from a Covid-19 vaccine. Cell lines derived from fetuses aborted many years in the past have been utilized in improvement, manufacturing or testing of vaccines.

The fits embrace one that’s set to be heard on Thursday in State Supreme Courtroom in Albany that challenges the legality of the mandate on procedural grounds, saying that it ought to have been enacted by the State Legislature, not as an emergency regulation by the manager department. There are additionally federal courtroom circumstances that intersect at sure factors of legislation or contain conflicting choices made within the state Well being Division after which modified.

One subject within the litigation is whether or not it’s lawful for the state to supply medical however not spiritual exemptions. In U.S. District Courtroom in Utica, 17 plaintiffs together with docs and nurses are asserting that the mandate restricts their First Modification proper to observe their faith and intrudes on federal anti-discrimination legislation.