Denver Contractors' Challenge of Vaccine Requirement Denied by Federal Judge
A lawsuit filed by a contractors association seeking to challenge Denver, CO's Covid-19 vaccine mandate was dismissed by a federal judge. The judge has given the contractors association 30 days to amend and resubmit a new complaint otherwise the ruling will stand.
In an order from August 2nd of last year, a mandate was put in place for some Denver employees. This order included workers in hospitals, schools, childcare centers, and correctional facilities among others; contractors were initially not included. A month later Denver officials released another order seeking to include construction contractors. The contractor association argues that the second order was improperly filed and that it is invalid because they were not included in the August order.
Michael A. Rollin, an attorney for the plaintiffs, alleges that contractors, "have lost employees, some cannot bid on Denver jobs anymore, and many have incurred costs associated with implementing or defending against the mandate’s conscription of private businesses to be Denver’s enforcer..."
The City of Denver contests that the lawsuit should not proceed because the plaintiffs, comprised of half a dozen construction trade associations, failed to prove that their businesses were adversely affected by the city health orders.
"There are no allegations," argued the Denver City Attorney's Office, "that any employee has resigned or has threatened to resign because of the Orders, there are no allegations that any work on any Denver contract has actually been impacted or genuinely threatened to be impacted, there are no allegations that any Plaintiff is imminently in danger of violating any particular contract because of the Orders, and there are no allegations that Plaintiffs have suffered any injury because of enforcement efforts by Denver."
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