Honolulu, Maui First Responders File Class Action Lawsuit Over Vaccine Mandate

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First responders from Honolulu and Maui have filed a proposed class action against Hawaii, Governor David Ige, both cities and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra over what they allege to be unconstitutional COVID-19 vaccine mandates. 

The 60-page lawsuit looks to represent roughly 1,200 police, firefighters and EMS workers in the state whose constitutional rights the plaintiffs allege are being violated by the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for first responders on the islands of Oahu and Maui. The suit claims the vaccine mandates violate the First, Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and the Civil Rights Act. 

Per the lawsuit, Governor Ige, via a February 2021 emergency proclamation, set a date of August 16 by which all state and county employees must be at least partially vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to regular testing. In lieu of vaccination or submitting to weekly testing, first responders also had the option to submit proof of religious or medical exemption by the same date or face termination from their jobs, according to the complaint. 

The plaintiffs contend Hawaii and the rest of the named defendants have failed to provide first responders with procedural due process protections and threatened to deny accommodations “based on any objections to any ingredients on the vaccine.” The suit alleges the defendants have “exhibited a callousness and deliberate indifference to clearly established constitutional and statutory rights.” 

The complaint can be found below.

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