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Gainesville Vaccine Ruling
Gainesville Vaccine Ruling
CITY OF GAINESVILLE,
Defendant.
_______________________________________/
THIS CAUSE came before the Court for hearing on September 20, 2021 on Plaintiffs’
Complaint, Declaration, and Petition for Emergency Injunctive Relief (the “Petition”), attended
by the Plaintiffs and their counsel, and counsel for the City of Gainesville. The Court has
reviewed the pleadings (the City of Gainesville’s Response in Opposition to Petition for
Plaintiffs’ Petition for Emergency Injunctive Relief,) and case law submitted by the parties, has
heard testimony from Plaintiff, Christine Damm, has heard the argument of counsel, and is duly
1. The City of Gainesville (the “City”) has enacted a policy requiring its employees
to be “fully vaccinated” for Covid-19 on or before October 30, 2021, or face progressive
2. At the Hearing, the Plaintiffs (who are City employees) argued that the Vaccine
Mandate facially implicates their right to privacy under the Florida Constitution, Article I, § 23
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The City Commission voted to adopt the requirement for City employees to be vaccinated at its August 5, 2021
City Commission Meeting. City Manager Memorandum No. 210040, authored by Lee R. Feldman, City Manager,
and dated August 12, 2021, formalizes the City’s directives and provides the details for implementing the City’s
Vaccine Mandate. The Plaintiffs’ witness testified that the City had informed her, as an employee, that the policy’s
deadline for vaccination or termination is October 30, 2021. The City’s counsel was unable to confirm or deny the
deadline with certainty. The Court’s conclusions herein are the same, whatever the actual deadline.
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and that because the right to privacy is implicated that this Court is required to review the City’s
policy under a strict scrutiny standard (i.e. to determine whether the policy serves a compelling
government interest and utilizes the least restrictive means to serve that interest).
3. The City did not put on any evidence, at all, at the injunction hearing. Without
any evidence, the Court is unable to consider whether the Vaccine Mandate serves a compelling
interest through the least restrictive means, whether the Vaccine Mandate meets a strict scrutiny
test, a rational basis test, or whether it meets any other standard. The City did not file any
affidavits or declarations, did not submit any documentary evidence, and did not call any
witnesses.
4. For the reasons set forth below, the Plaintiffs’ Emergency Petition for Injunctive
Relief is GRANTED.
5. The United States Supreme Court has previously analyzed the constitutionality of
a compelled vaccination law by reviewing the vaccination mandate in the context of the rights
Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11, 26 (1905). Therefore, this Court must review the City’s Vaccine
Mandate within the context of the protections contained within the Florida Constitution.
Every natural person has the right to be let alone and free from governmental intrusion into the
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7. The right to privacy guarantees provided to Florida citizens under the Florida
Constitution are broader than the right to privacy guarantees provided to citizens under the U.S.
Constitution. Green v. Alachua County, 2021 WL 2387983 at *3 (Fla. 1st DCA 2021).
Constitution. A right explicitly contained in the Declaration of Rights of the Florida Constitution
is considered a fundamental right. State v. J.P., 907 So.2d 1101, 1109 (Fla. 2005). Because the
right to privacy is a fundamental right in Florida, the government can only infringe upon that
right if necessary to accomplish a compelling government interest, using the least restrictive
means necessary to serve that interest (this test is commonly referred to as the “strict scrutiny”
standard of review). Id., see also Winfield v. Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering, 477 So. 2d 544
(Fla. 1985); Green v. Alachua County, 2021 WL 2387983 (Fla. 1st DCA 2021).
9. Therefore, this court must determine whether the City’s Vaccine Mandate
implicates Plaintiffs’ fundamental right to privacy, such that the Vaccine Mandate should be
10. Florida law provides that citizens have the right to refuse unwanted medical
competent person has the constitutional right to choose or refuse medical treatment, and that
11. Federal law holds that compelled physical intrusion into the human body is an
12. The City’s Vaccine Mandate requires City employees to receive a complete dose
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injection. The City’s Vaccine Mandate requires a compulsory vaccination procedure that can
reasonably be considered a form of medical treatment and/or a medical procedure, and thus, this
13. If a challenged law implicates Florida's right to privacy, the burden shifts to the
government to prove that the law furthers a compelling state interest in the least restrictive way
—also known as the “strict scrutiny” standard. Gainesville Woman Care, LLC v. State, 210 So.
3d 1243, 1252-1253 (Fla. 2017); see also, Green v. Alachua County, 2021 WL 2387983 at *3.
instances when the government seeks to enforce laws, and also, in instances when the
government employer seeks to enforce workplace policies. See City of N. Miami v. Kurtz, 653
15. If the government fails to put on evidence of its compelling state interest, as the
City failed to do here, the Court is not required to (and, in fact, cannot) make factual findings
that the government has any compelling state interest. Green, 2021 WL 2387983 at *3 (“When
the government fails to offer evidence to demonstrate a compelling state interest, the trial court
then is absolved of having to make any finding to that effect”). In the instant case, the City failed
to put on any evidence that the Vaccine Mandate serves a compelling state interest or that the
Vaccine Mandate was the least restrictive means to accomplish that interest.
16. The City’s Vaccine Mandate facially interferes with its employees’ right to refuse
privacy, and is “presumptively unconstitutional.” Gainesville Woman Care, LLC., 210 So. 3d at
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17. The City had an opportunity to present evidence that would show that this
Vaccine Mandate was the least restrictive means to meet a compelling government interest. The
City did not do that and, in fact, did not present any evidence, at all. Therefore, the Court is
required to find that the City failed to meet its burden of proving that the Vaccine Mandate
furthers a compelling state interest in the least restrictive way. See Gainesville Woman Care, 210
18. The analysis for issuance of a temporary injunction based on a privacy challenge
under Florida’s constitution is entirely different from the ordinary four-element analysis for other
19. When a law is challenged on privacy grounds, the Court must first make a single,
threshold do novo inquiry whether the challenged law invades an individual’s right to privacy.
Green, 2021 WL 2387983 at *2. This court has conducted that inquiry and has determined that
the challenged policy invades and/or implicates the Plaintiffs’ constitutionally protected right to
privacy.
20. Green instructs, and this Court is bound to follow, that because the City failed to
offer evidence demonstrating any compelling state interest that would justify the infringement on
Plaintiffs’ right to privacy, the remaining prongs of the injunction inquiry collapse into the first
prong of likelihood of success on the merits, which is established by the threshold determination
that the challenged law implicates a privacy right. Green, 2021 WL 2387983 at *3 (citing
21. In other words, having determined that the City’s Vaccine Mandate implicates
Plaintiffs’ privacy rights (and with no showing of a compelling interest demonstrated by the
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City), this Court is required to presume that the Plaintiffs have adequately demonstrated the four
elements required for this Court to order the requested injunctive relief: likelihood of success on
the merits, lack of an adequate legal remedy, irreparable harm, and the public and private
b. The City shall not terminate or discipline any employee for failure to comply with
23. The Court determines that, giving due regard for the public interest, no bond is
24. This injunction will continue in force until further order of the Court.
DONE AND ORDERED in Chambers at the Alachua County Family & Civil Justice Center,
Gainesville, Florida on Wednesday, September 22, 2021.
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
I HEREBY CERTIFY that copies have been furnished by U.S. Mail or via filing with the
Florida Courts E-Filing Portal on Wednesday, September 22, 2021.
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Seldon J. Childers