U.S. Judge Tosses Order Blocking Vaccine Mandate for One NYPD Detective

(Bloomberg) -- A federal judge threw out an order that temporarily blocked New York City from enforcing its Covid vaccine requirement on a police detective who doesn’t want to get the shot.

State Supreme Court Justice Frank Nervo this month granted a temporary restraining order requested by Detective Anthony Marciano, barring the city from suspending him without pay if he refused to get vaccinated. At the time, Nervo declined to specify whether the order applied only to Marciano or also to an estimated 6,000 other New York Police Department employees who refused to get the shot. 

The city then moved the case next door to the Manhattan federal courthouse, where U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff Wednesday threw out the order and made it clear that the case only involves Marciano. He said the detective can seek a new order blocking enforcement of the requirement against him if the city refuses to grant a “reasonable accommodation” -- a change in his work conditions that would protect coworkers and the public while letting him continue on the job without getting a shot.

“It would be, I think, premature to impose a TRO barring the city from going forward with a mandate until, at an absolute minimum, we know that his request for reasonable accommodation has been denied,” Rakoff said in a telephone hearing.

The case is Marciano v. De Blasio, 21-cv-10752, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

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