Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against the San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD) over its decision to impose a vaccine mandate on staff as a condition of employment.
Staff members have until Oct. 15 to comply, Martinez said, with exemptions allowed on grounds of religion or having a qualifying disability that puts people at risk of side effects from the vaccine.
Paxton argued in the lawsuit that SAISD and Martinez, who is also named in the complaint, are deliberately violating state law by disregarding Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order banning vaccine mandates.
“In flouting GA-38’s ban on vaccination mandates, Defendants challenge the policy choices made by the State’s commander in chief during times of disaster,” Paxton wrote. “But the Texas Legislature made the Governor—not some patchwork of county judges, city mayors, or superintendents—the leader of the State’s response to and recovery from a statewide emergency.”
“If other governmental entities continue to blatantly disregard state law, I will sue every single one of them,” Paxton said.
Martinez’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.
The EEOC said employers would have to make “reasonable accommodations” for workers who can’t or won’t get vaccinated due to a medical condition, a religious belief, or pregnancy.
“Federal EEO laws do not prevent an employer from requiring all employees physically entering the workplace to be vaccinated for COVID-19, so long as employers comply with the reasonable accommodation provisions of the ADA and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other EEO considerations,” the EEOC said in the updated guidance.
Paxton argued in his complaint that the defendants’ argument that the EEOC’s guidance permits the imposition of a COVID-19 vaccine mandate “misses the mark,” as the guidelines pertain to federal laws.
“This guidance does not analyze relevant state laws,” Paxton wrote, adding that “this guidance does nothing to excuse Defendants’ violation of GA-38 because Plaintiff’s claims are unrelated to the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, or any other EEO laws—rather, Plaintiff claims that Defendants have violated state law.”
Paxton’s lawsuit asks the court to grant a temporary restraining order that would prevent the enforcement of SAISD’s vaccine mandate for as long as Abbott’s order remains in effect.