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Judge denies request to temporarily block House Bill 702 while litigation plays out – Daily Montanan

['Keith Schubert', 'More From Author', '- February']

Date: 2022-02-02 00:00:00

Richland County District Judge Olivia Rieger said on Tuesday she will not temporarily block a new state law resulting from House Bill 702 that bans discrimination based on vaccine status and employers from requiring workers to be vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus.

Joel Krautter, an attorney at Netzer Law Office in Sidney and a former state Republican representative, filed the lawsuit in October on behalf of Netzer Law Office and Donald Netzer, an employee at the firm. The lawsuit argues the law violates a series of state constitutional protections, including the Equal Protection Clause and the right to a “clean and healthful” environment. The plaintiffs are asking Rieger rule HB702 is unconstitutional.

On Tuesday, Rieger ruled that the plaintiffs’ did not sufficiently demonstrate they would suffer “irreparable harm” if the new law remained in place while litigation unfolds and rejected the request for a preliminary injunction. The defendants in the case are Attorney General Austin Knudsen and Montana Commissioner of Labor and Industry Laurie Esau.

Knudsen applauded Rieger’s order. “No Montanan should be forced by their employer to receive a vaccine they do not want,” his office wrote in an emailed statement to the Montana State News Bureau. Knudsen has been outspoken against vaccine mandates throughout the pandemic and has joined more than 10 lawsuits challenging federal vaccine mandates.

“[The state law] does not prevent Donald L. Netzer from adopting and implementing health and safety measures, it prevents him from implementing the health and safety measures he wants, which is to treat vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals differently,” Rieger wrote in her Tuesday ruling.

House Bill 702, sponsored by Manhattan Republican Rep. Jennifer Carlson, prohibits discrimination based on a person’s vaccination status. Montana is the only state with such a law, and Netzer’s lawsuit is the second legal challenge. The other was brought by the Montana Medical Association is pending.

The lawsuit argued that the firm could be at risk of economic loss if it had to close due to a COVID-19 outbreak. While Rieger said, “vaccines for COVID-19 .. have proven to be effective against hospitalization and even death,” she said, “no vaccine will ever be 100% effective…” and therefore ruled the potential of economic loss “could occur whether individuals are vaccinated against infectious diseases or not.”

Because the law firm can institute other public health mitigation options, she said the law does not violate the right to a “clean and healthful” environment. “…it is an impossibility for that right to depend solely on a person’s vaccination status,” Rieger wrote.

Rieger also said Netzer failed to show how the new law would increase his exposure to the disease and lead to a serious threat to his life, writing, “even vaccinated individuals can carry and transmit the virus.”

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