Supreme Court doesn’t block Indiana University’s vaccine mandate

The Supreme Court won’t block Indiana University from mandating that students be vaccinated against Covid-19 during the upcoming fall semester.

On Thursday, Justice Amy Coney Barrett denied a challenge from eight students who had sued the university over the policy. Barrett has jurisdiction over the appeals court involved in the case and did not refer the students’ request to the full court, according to The New York Times.

The ruling is the latest court loss for the students, who were represented by the attorney James Bopp. Earlier this summer, a district court in Indiana rejected Bopp’s argument that the university shouldn’t be able to require the vaccines. That ruling was later upheld by a Chicago-based appeals court.

California’s two public university systems, University of California and California State University, are both requiring students, faculty and staff to be vaccinated against Covid-19 in order to access campus facilities this fall.