The Florida Estate Planning and Probate Law Blog is focused on recent federal and state case law and planning ideas.

Federal Court Affirms Employer Right To Require Employees To Be Vaccinated

On June 12, 2021 a federal judge in Houston, Texas issued the first federal court decision addressing whether an employer may require its employees to be vaccinated as a condition of employment. The federal judge ruled that Houston Methodist Hospital (the “hospital”) did not violate the law by requiring, as a matter of policy, that all employees be vaccinated against COVID-19 by June 7, 2021. The court rejected multiple arguments, including that the COVID-19 vaccines currently available “are experimental and dangerous,” the injection requirement violated public policy, employees cannot be required to receive “unapproved” medicines and that “no currently-available vaccines have been fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration,” and that the hospital’s policy was “coercion.” To learn more go to www.fl-estateplanning.com.