Judge blocks Michelle Wu’s Boston employee vaccine mandate, orders injunction

“…An appellate judge has ruled against Mayor Michelle Wu, indefinitely extending the court-ordered pause on enforcement of Boston’s employee coronavirus vaccine mandate as the public-safety unions further prevailed in a lawsuit against the city.

Massachusetts Appeals Court Association Justice Sabita Singh issued the order on Tuesday, overturning a lower-court judge’s decision to let Wu go ahead with disciplining city workers who didn’t get the shot.

“Given the limited harm to the city and the public health interest it seeks to promote, and the substantial harm likely to be sustained by the unions in the absence of an injunction, the balance of harms favors the issuance of an injunction to preserve the status quo, in view of the unions’ likelihood of success on the merits,” Singh wrote.

She added that “an injunction would avoid the risk of loss of essential public employees, a harm suffered by the unions and the public alike.”…”