Abraham Jewett  |  August 16, 2021

Category: Appliances

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vaccine requirement
(Photo Credit: Vincent B David/Shutterstock)

Vaccine Requirement Class Action Lawsuit Overview: 

  • Who: More than 1,200 first responders have joined a class action lawsuit against Honolulu and Maui Counties. 
  • Why: The first responders say a vaccine requirement by their employer violates their civil rights.
  • Where: The lawsuit involves first responders located in Honolulu and Maui, Hawaii.

More than 1,200 first responders have joined a class action lawsuit filed against Honolulu and Maui County officials, claiming a COVID-19 vaccine requirement put in place violates their civil rights. 

The class action lawsuit was filed in federal court Friday by a dozen plaintiffs, including firefighters, police officers, and other first responders. The plaintiffs want to stop Hawaii Governor David Ige, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi, Maui Mayor Michael Victorino, and United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, among others, from enforcing a vaccine or testing mandate announced recently. 

The plaintiffs are suing under The Civil Rights Act of 1871, which allows people to sue the government for violations of civil rights. They’re alleging the defendants deprived them of their constitutional rights to due process in violation of the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution with a vaccine requirement that was announced last week. 

The plaintiffs want to represent first responders from the Honolulu Fire Department, the Honolulu Police Department, the Maui Fire Department, the Maui Police Department, the Honolulu Emergency Medical Services Department, and the Honolulu Ocean Safety Department. 

They say implementing a vaccine mandate is a violation of their civil rights and their collective bargaining agreement, Hawaii Revised Chapter 89

Governor Ige issued a statement last week that all state and county workers would need to get the COVID-19 vaccine or submit to weekly testing beginning on Aug 16, and that refusal to do so could be grounds for termination.

The announcement drew the ire of workers’ unions, which claimed the plan was not appropriately discussed with them ahead of time. The plaintiffs say it should be up to them to make the decision on whether or not to take the vaccine, and that their employment status should not be threatened. 

“Governor Ige has callously and recklessly disregarded these long standing principles and entered an Emergency Proclamation suspending Hawaii Revised Chapter 89, thereby leaving Plaintiffs no other avenue of relief other than the federal court to enforce their clearly established federal statutory and constitutional rights,” the class action lawsuit says.

What are your thoughts on a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for first responders or other workers? Let us know in the comments! 

The plaintiffs are represented by Shawn A. Luiz, Michael Jay Green of Michael Jay Green & Associates, Inc., and Kristin Coccaro, Esq. of Empire Law, LLLC. 

The Hawaii Vaccine Requirement Class Action Lawsuit is Pelekai v. State of Hawaii, Case No. 1:21-cv-00343-DKW-RT, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii.


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45 thoughts onMore than 1,200 First Responders File Class Action Lawsuit in Hawaii Over Vaccine Requirement

  1. Al Doich says:

    Let me guess: You are from the Southeast and you don’t like to read?!?

  2. Pharmaceutical Incentivizing says:

    How do we add WA State?

  3. Al Doich says:

    Making the vaccine mandatory is outrageous act against democracy, to say at least. I know several people who suffered after one vaccine, and I almost lost my wife due to the second vaccination, so I would like to address the ignorant “sheep” by saying “Open your eyes! You’re taken to the slaughterhouse!”

    1. Pharmaceutical Incentivizing says:

      I am sorry for what you went through. DuckDuckGo (search engine) Reasearch: Epicenter Nurse. The Undercover Epicenter Nurse blows the lid off the COVID-19 pandemic. Nurse-turned-investigative journalist-Erin Marie Olszewski. Look her up. Hospital’s Incentivized on Corona virus (common cold/flu) C19 Ventilators, C19Death certificates, & why not C19 vaccinations? Look up youtube silverware & magnet sticking to skin. Dr. Stella Immanuel, Dr. Simmone Gold, Dr. Tenpenny, Mike Lindell, Sidney Powell, Marjorie Taylor Green, Reawaken America, General Flynn, Inforwars. Imagine a vaccine so safe you have to be threatened to take it… for a virus so deadly you have to be tested to know you have it.
      And if you don’t wear your yellow star mask over your face you will have no business, no job, no travel, no civil rights, if you do not comply & show your papers …all aboard the train to Auschwitz. God Save America!

      1. Eve says:

        Great response! too much!!!

    2. CC says:

      Agee 100%

    3. CC says:

      Agee 100%

  4. Olga Skinner says:

    My body, my choice what goes inside my and your body. No one should push vaccines on anyone, especially mandated and threatened with the job. Nonsense even after vaccines people get sick with Covid and dying.

    1. Kelly says:

      Yes we should sue for our civil rights in Washington state.

    2. CC says:

      You really are oblivious to reality!!!! The virus was man made to eliminate the population and now the vaccine is just as detrimental to your health!!!!

  5. Concerned Citizen says:

    Courts have already decided on this. This case will go nowhere.

    1. Kirk says:

      Thank you for your comment! Send the vaccine to Hawaii now!

  6. Cheena R says:

    Can we get the claim going in California?

  7. Kathy says:

    I agree, it’s violating their right. It’s their decision not the government.

  8. Denise P says:

    Go Americans. No one should be required to take the vaccine, be paid to incent them to do so or be required to test every week. People are already dying from the vaccine. I hope that if their employer required it that their families sue the employer. What happened to all of our rights under the constitution? Looks like those that can are taking advantage of their power for control.

    1. CC says:

      We are becoming a communist country just what they want! CONTROL!

  9. Dawn Montanez says:

    Add me
    First Responder

  10. Dorieharris says:

    Add me

    1. Chris says:

      Lol free money for lawyers suit will be tossed

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