TheCOVIDBlog.com
April 26, 2023 (updated July 3, 2023)
CHICAGO — Allegheny County (Pittsburgh) Executive Rich Fitzgerald, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, California Governor Gavin Newsom, Washington Governor Jay Inslee, and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. This quintet of tyrants represented 60 million people (about 18% of the U.S. population) throughout the so-called “pandemic.”
All of them implemented mask mandates, vaccine mandates, and lockdowns under the guise of “safety” and “science.” Accountability started in January 2022. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for all U.S. employers with over 100 workers was a “significant encroachment into the lives—and health—of a vast number of [U.S.] employees.”
The Court further reasoned, in upholding a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of said mandate, that so-called COVID-19 is a “universal risk,” not a workplace risk. Biden, as Chief Executive of the United States, did not and does not have the statutory authority to issue vaccine mandates in the workplace. State-level administrative procedures laws apply in the same way to governors, mayors and other chief executives.
Chicago residents voiced their disdain for Mayor Lori Lightfoot in February, when they voted her out of office. Lightfoot became the first Chicago incumbent mayor to lose re-election for a second term since 1983. Her last day in power is May 15. But she received a nice going away present from an Illinois administrative judge late last week.
Vaccine mandate violated collective bargaining laws
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 31 (AFSCME) and the Coalition of Unionized Public Employees (COUPE) filed separate complaints with the Illinois Labor Relations Board on October 29, 2021. Both unions accused Lightfoot and the City of Chicago of unfair labor practices by unilaterally implementing vaccine mandates for unionized workers, in lieu of collective bargaining. The cases were consolidated in early 2022.
Administrative Law Judge Anna Hamburg-Gal, in a 78-page decision and order, reviewed a months-long back and forth between the unions and Lightfoot’s office leading up to the unilateral vaccine mandate. An arbitrator initially ruled that the vaccine mandate was legal. He extended the deadline for employees to receive their first injection to December 31, 2021. The mandate went into full effect thereafter.
Several employees were placed in no-pay statuses at the beginning of 2022. All of those employees were fired by August 2022. Chicago had allowed a twice-weekly testing policy for all employees granted medical or religious exemptions. But the city suspended that policy in September 2022, effectively nullifying all exemptions.
RELATED: New York state judge strikes down Governor Hochul mask mandate (January 25, 2022)
Judge Hamburg-Gal ruled that Lightfoot negotiated in bad faith and engaged in unfair labor practices, in violation of Section 11 of the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act. Lightfoot and the City violated the Act by, among other things:
- implementing its vaccination policy without first bargaining over its effects to impasse or agreement
- refusing to bargain over its decision to impose a vaccination mandate and a reporting requirement
- unilaterally changing the status quo of employees’ terms and conditions of employment in 2022, when it eliminated the testing requirement for unvaccinated employees and terminated employees who were previously on no-pay status under its vaccination policy
The judge ordered the city of Chicago to cease-and-desist the vaccine mandate, rehire all fired employees, and to make them whole with back pay plus 7% interest.
Read the full administrative decision here.
This ruling is not final. Lightfoot called the decision “erroneous.” She also repeated the Fauci-ism that the judge’s decision “does not follow the science.” The city has 30 days (until May 19) to object to the ruling. If they are still not satisfied with the labor board’s ruling, then they can seek review from the Illinois Court of Appeals.
We’ll follow up in due course.
Congratulations to those who stood their ground
We’ve been making a lot of basic instructional videos over at COVID Legal USA. This blogger said from the very start, in the spring of 2021, that vaccine mandates are illegal unless implemented via legislative action. Presidents, governors, mayors, etc. have never had unilateral authority to order medical procedures.
The 1905 Supreme Court decision in Jacobson vs. Massachusetts became a rallying cry for vaxx zealots. They literally tried equating rebranded flu with smallpox, a disease with a 30% mortality rate. Further, the Massachusetts state legislature passed an actual law allowing for vaccine mandates. Executive orders are not laws.
RELATED: Biden Administration, Fauci suffer more setbacks, as federal judge strikes down CDC mask mandate for airplanes, travel (April 19, 2022)
The bottom line is that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) requires employers to honor religious exemptions without argument. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution mandates freedom of religion. Cities, states and the White House attempted to get away with these illegal mandates, hoping that nobody would fight back whether on procedural or religious grounds. Granted the vast majority of Americans complied. But those who stood their ground can now reap the benefits.
One of the more recent COVID Legal USA videos we produced talks about federal court jurisdiction. As long as you are suing under a federal law (i.e. ADA), then you file your lawsuit in federal court. If you are filing under the ADA, you must go through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) first.
The agency is useless. But it will eventually issue a right-to-sue letter, providing 90 days to file a federal lawsuit. This administrative step must be exhausted before federal court. You are also clear to file a federal lawsuit if the EEOC takes no action within 180 days of filing with them. These are just some of the basic videos we’ve produced to help pro se litigants navigate the complex court system.
We fully expect the Chicago decision to survive the appellate process, based on federal and state precedent across the country. You cannot undo mRNA and viral vector DNA injections. But if you remained principled during the toughest days from January 2021 to December 2022, now is your time for vindication.
Stay vigilant and protect your friends and loved ones.
COVID Legal USA is your partner in fight mandatory vaccines and other COVID mandates. Follow us on Telegram. Pre-order The COVID Blog® book here.
Fight back against censorship! We are once again processing credit card donations. CLICK HERE TO DONATE VIA CREDIT OR DEBIT CARD.
I hope plenty of people avail themselves to whatever financial remedy is possible. It will certainly affect the states of California, New York and Illinois more than the states with common sense. I just wish the pseudo-slavery aspect as outlined in this article would get some attention.
I see that some people are finally coming around to excessive masking is bad, but look how long it took. How long will it take for them to understand why I don’t want a corporation “hacking (my) code of life”?
Agree. These things take so long to litigate and people are made to suffer greatly in the meantime. Does one live off others or go massively in debt? Does backpay with 7% interest automatically resolve the mental anxiety of 2+ years? Does anything fix the compounded anxiety of getting on a plane now with force jabbed pilots, of walking into a doctor’s office — even now — past the mask bouncers, etc., etc.
Of wondering whether it’s worth your child going to college for fear of having to drop out for the next wave of medical tyrrany, of having to request blood tests of a potential spouse to know if they are organic or transhuman?
No amount of money can can resolve the years of suffering because of the Covid scam. Some people have to pay.
Lori Lightfoot is a scumbag for sure. But don’t let the union brass and arbitrators off the hook either. If they would have supported their rank and file and striked, this would not have happened. Let the trash pile up. Keep the police off the streets (though Chicago already does this), no fire fighters etc. Instead the union brass got paid off and flipped off their rank and file. Kudos for those who stood strong. You will get your money plus 7% interest and don’t have to worry and wonder if you or your kids will even wake up etc from the clot shots. To the rest – you shouldn’t have caved.
Beetlejuice overstepped their bounds? Color me shocked!
“MANDATES” = PRETEND LAWS
Felicidades por los nuevos suscriptores del Blog
Felicidades a los que han aguantado hasta el final.
Felicidades a esa parte de la humanidad despierta que es capaz de luchar contra ésta tiranía global,tal vez esa minoría despierta sea la esperanza del futuro de la humanidad.
Felicidades a todos!!
Muy bien dicho !
Gracias David!! Un saludo desde España
Although after seeing Lori Bigfoot I can appreciate why some people might like to mandate full-face face mask for life.
Yeah. A face even a mother would have a hard time loving.
yep that dude is ugly as f00k
Last week I attended a memorial service for a former coworker of my wife. I had met the person, a nice lady, only once at a social gathering and she was highly regarded by all who knew her. She had suffered from breast cancer but had seemingly recovered.
She was a federal employee and then along came President Dementia’s mandate for all federal employees to get jabbed, which she did in order to retain her job.
Then her breast cancer came roaring back and she was soon dead.
I doubt anyone wants to connect the dots there.
Oddly enough, my wife tells me that those who turned down the job were not fired, nor was anyone required to get boosters. The whole issue seemed to fade away, especially when attention was diverted to the war in Ukraine starting early last year.
Remember how Dementia warned us that he was running out of patience with the unvaxxed? Nothing has come of it — yet. He may get around to it later when one of his minders puts a note in his hand and tells him to read from it, as he does at his “press conferences.”
That Lori Lightfoit is surely a man. Right?
No Cherie – she is a woman!
There are plenty of evil women in this world.
I think Lightfoot (aka Groot) is proof we are being visited by beings from other galaxies.