The ruling Monday is a major victory for the police unions which sued the city over vaccine requirements.
A Cook County judge on Monday suspended the city of Chicago’s policy requiring that all of its police officers be vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of the year.
The ruling is a major victory for police unions, who have held that the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate violates their collective bargaining agreements. Judge Raymond Mitchell ruled Monday that the mandate should be halted for police officers until those complaints can be settled in arbitration.
Mitchell’s ruling does not impact other city workers, or other parts of the policy. That means city employees who are not represented by any of the four police unions will still have to be vaccinated by Dec. 31, 2021. And all police officers are still required to report their vaccination status and get tested twice a week if they’re not vaccinated.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said at an unrelated news conference Monday afternoon that her office is still reviewing the order, and she hadn’t yet read it. She declined to comment on whether the dispute will be resolved by the end of the year, but contended the “mandate continues.”
“Our lawyers are looking at the judge’s ruling and looking at what our legal options are,” she said. “But what I know is we cannot stop, we absolutely cannot stop. This is about saving people’s lives.”
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