The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that Montana’s pandemic-era law barring vaccine mandates and data collection may go into effect in health care settings, reversing a federal judge’s injunction from 2022 after state attorneys appealed the case early last year.
House Bill 702, which was already in place for many other private businesses and employment settings, prohibits employers from discriminating on the basis of a person’s vaccination status. The law applies not only to COVID-19 vaccines but also to immunizations against measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, tuberculosis, diphtheria, pertussis and hepatitis B.
The Thursday ruling by a panel of three justices allows HB 702 to now apply to health care facilities that were shielded from compliance under the federal district court injunction.
The plaintiffs that challenged the 2021 Republican-backed law included immunocompromised patients, the Montana Medical Association, the Montana Nurses Association, Western Montana Clinic and Five Valleys Urology.
