Reply to AG Miyares says Virginia colleges and universities can’t require a Covid vaccine

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Reply to "AG Miyares says Virginia colleges and universities can’t require a Covid vaccine"

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[quote=Anonymous]Reading both opinions, it is not clear to me what the correct answer is, but there is a glaring omission in Miyares' opinion that suggests to me Herring's may be better-reasoned.

Herring's April 2021 opinion on the issue essentially is that the Virginia code provides a broad grant of discretion to boards of visitors to set policies and regulations to maintain campus health and safety and there is noting in the Virginia code that prohibits boards of visitors from imposing a covid vaccine requirement during a public health emergency.  Other bodies, such as the General Assembly and the Commissioner of Health, can also create health-related requirements, but this does not inherently strip authority from the boards of visitors from also acting to impose health and safety-related rules.  Therefore, the boards of visitors are not prohibited from conditioning in-person attendance on receipt of an approved covid-19 vaccine.

Miyares' reasoning is that, notwithstanding the broad general grant of authority by the General Assembly to boards of visitors, the General Assembly has created some statutory requirements in the area of vaccine requirements and that implicitly means the boards of visitors do not have authority to regulate in this area.  The Virginia code provision he cites does itself say anything about vaccine requirements imposed by the General Assembly being the exclusive list of vaccines that may be required for in-person attendance, however, and Miyares does not cite to any code provision or case law stating that, where the General Assembly has chosen to act in an area, the boards of visitors are prohibited from also acting in that area to supplement the General Assembly's enactments.  It may be that such code or case law does exist, but it is a pretty notable omission not to include it if it does.  [/quote]

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