INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana’s state attorney general is attacking Indiana University’s decision to require proof of COVID-19 vaccinations from all students and employees as illegal under a new state law banning the state or local governments from issuing or requiring vaccine passports.
That advisory opinion issued late Wednesday afternoon, however, contradicts a top Republican legislative leader who said he didn’t believe the law adopted last month applied to public universities or K-12 schools, The Associated Press reported.
The opinion from Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita’s office, which is not binding, maintains that Indiana’s public universities are created by state law and that court rulings have determined them to be “arms of the state,” according to wire reports. The opinion said the new law applies to universities since the legislature didn’t exempt them.
The attorney general’s opinion comes a day after 19 Republican legislators, including Reps. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour, and Sean Eberhart, R-Shelbyville, sent a protest letter to Gov. Eric Holcomb asking him to prohibit any state university from mandating vaccines that don’t have full U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval.
Lucas and Eberhart each represent small portions of Bartholomew County as part of their districts.
Lucas, who drafted the letter, said Thursday that he supports Rokita’s opinion, claiming that “the ball is in IU’s court if they want to continue down this path.”
“I think they’ve seen enough resistance from legislators and the people, and now the attorney general weighing in with his decision, I think they have quite the uphill battle to maintain their position,” Lucas said. “…If they continue down this path, we’re just going to have to increase the pressure and see how far they want to take this.”
IU officials announced Friday that all students, faculty and staff are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 before returning to campus this fall.
The university said the requirements applies to all campuses, including IUPUC, and its order is aimed at prioritizing the safety of employees and the some 90,000 students on its seven campuses while providing a more typical college experience, with full attendance at in-person classes, athletic and other events, according to wire reports.
“The policy mandating the vaccine reiterates that we are not requiring a vaccine ‘passport’; with everyone vaccinated, that would be unnecessary,” an IU statement said.
Republican legislators last month pushed through the ban on COVID-19 vaccine passports, a move that came as conservatives across the country portray them as a heavy-handed intrusion into personal freedom and private health choices, according to wire reports.
Rokita emphasized that objection in a statement about the opinion.
“Indiana University’s policy clearly runs afoul of state law — and the fundamental liberties and freedoms this legislation was designed to protect,” Rokita said.
The new law states that “the state or a local unit may not issue or require an immunization passport.”
It makes no mentions of educational institutions and Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray said on the day it was approved that he didn’t believe it applied to public universities or K-12 schools.
“I looked at it as state, county, local governments,” Bray said.
The attorney general’s opinion, however, said the state universities may require COVID-19 vaccinations but can’t force students or employees to provide proof of immunizations, according to wire reports.
It distinguished between Indiana University’s policy and that of Purdue University, which plans to require students and employees to either provide proof of vaccination for the fall semester or participate in frequent COVID-19 testing.
“Students have the choice whether to vaccinate or be tested regularly; even if they are vaccinated, they can be tested if they do not want to show proof of vaccination,” the opinion said. “Purdue seems to be using a procedural loophole by not technically requiring the vaccinated student to produce the immunization record.”
Lucas, for his part, has supported requiring vaccinations for other illnesses at state educational institutions in the past.
In 2017, Lucas voted in favor of a bill that added meningitis to the list of immunizations that students on residential campuses in Indiana are required to get to enroll in classes.
The measure, HB 1069, received broad support in the General Assembly, passing the House in an 87-2 vote on April 11, 2017 and the Senate 33-15 on March 14, 2017, according to public records.
Holcomb signed the bill into law on April 24, 2017.
Other vaccine-preventable illnesses on the list of required immunizations for Indiana college students include diphtheria, tetanus, measles, mumps and rubella, according to the Indiana Code.
“That was four years ago and that particular vaccine is FDA approved,” Lucas said. “We have to look at the facts of COVID. COVID is a relatively new virus, obviously. Just simply you could look at it as either we have a full year’s worth of data or we barely have a year’s worth of data. Meningitis has been with us for a long, long time.”
When asked on Wednesday if he would support requiring COVID-19 vaccines at state educational institutions if the shots were to receive full FDA approval, Lucas said: “I’m still against forcing anybody to do anything with their body. And if vaccines work, what do vaccinated people have to worry about from unvaccinated people?”
Lucas said he has no plans to get vaccinated against COVID-19, stating that the vast majority of people who are infected with the virus survive and “I’m 56, take vitamins, diet and exercise.”
At least 320 people in Bartholomew, Brown, Jackson and Jennings counties have died from COVID-19, according to the Indiana State Department of Health.
“I’m not saying we shouldn’t take (COVID-19) serious,” Lucas said. “If people want to get (the vaccine), let them get it. But as far as going to mandate something like that, no, I would be against something like that. If a bill similar to (the 2017 bill) comes up today for COVID, I would vote against it.”
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.
