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@JasonMiyaresVA
says becase Virginia lawmakers didn't add COVID-19 to the official list of vaccines that can be required for higher ed students, colleges and universities can't mandate COVID-19 shots

EDUCATION

THE BULLETIN

New Attorney General says public universities can’t require COVID-19 vaccine for students

BY: NED OLIVER AND GRAHAM MOOMAW - JANUARY 28, 2022 9:58 AM

Attorney General Jason Miyares said Friday state colleges and universities don’t have the authority to require students get vaccinated or boosted against COVID-19, reversing a legal opinion from his predecessor that reached the opposite conclusion. ... “Absent specific authority conferred by the General Assembly, public institutions of higher education in Virginia may not require vaccination against COVID-19 as a general condition of students’ enrollment or in-person attendance,” Miyares wrote in a legal opinion requested by Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

The immediate impact on state schools, many of which have maintained vaccine mandates for students since the shots became widely available, was unclear. ... Miyares’ opinions are advisory and non-binding, but the schools also rely on Miyares’ office for legal advice. (Miyares’ made news earlier this week when he fired legal counsels at the University of Virginia and George Mason University.)

Representatives of UVA, Virginia Tech and the College of William & Mary did not immediately respond to request for comment. ... The schools had already eliminated vaccine requirements for faculty and staff after Youngkin signed an executive order during his first day in office striking the requirement for state employees, which was put in place by former Gov. Ralph Northam. ... Former Attorney General Mark Herring had opined in April that the General Assembly had granted broad discretion to leaders of state colleges to establish policies, which he said would include vaccine requirements.

{snip}

{Miyares} notes that the General Assembly had several opportunities to add COVID-19 to the statute and did not. ... “Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, the General Assembly has amended other statues to address pandemic-related issues,” the opinion says. “To date, the General Assembly has not amended the specific immunizations enumerated in (state code) to include immunization for COVID-19, and boards of visitors may not exercise and implied power to require {a} certain vaccine when a specific statue governing vaccination excludes it.”
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NED OLIVER
Ned, a Lexington native, has been a fulltime journalist since 2008, beginning at The News-Gazette in Lexington, and including stints at the Berkshire Eagle, in Berkshire County, Mass., and the Times-Dispatch and Style Weekly in Richmond. He is a graduate of Bard College at Simon’s Rock, in Great Barrington, Mass. He was named Virginia's outstanding journalist for 2020 by the Virginia Press Association. Contact him at noliver@virginiamercury.com

GRAHAM MOOMAW
A veteran Virginia politics reporter, Graham grew up in Hillsville and Lynchburg, graduating from James Madison University and earning a master's degree in journalism from the University of Maryland. Before joining the Mercury in 2019, he spent six years at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, most of that time covering the governor's office, the General Assembly and state politics. He also covered city hall and politics at The Daily Progress in Charlottesville. Contact him at gmoomaw@virginiamercury.com