A Republican state senator wants to ban the use of vaccine passports and prohibit any public or private entity – schools, businesses, beaches, doctors – from asking about or for someone’s vaccination status.
The bill, introduced on Monday, would prohibit public agencies and private companies from asking if people have been vaccinated, requiring their vaccination to get entry or asking to prove they have been vaccinated.
Allowing the use of so-called vaccine passports would amount to discrimination based on a person’s vaccine status, said State Sen. Jim Holzapfel, R-Ocean, who sponsors the bill in the Senate.
“We are extremely concerned about Governor Murphy’s willingness to consider using vaccine passports that could prevent people from working, going to school or visiting public places,” Holzapfel said in a statement. “In a free society that respects individual rights, we believe that health decisions should be a personal, private choice that a patient should not discuss with anyone other than his or her physician.”
As the number of vaccinated Americans grows, vaccine passports have become a source of controversy. Lawyers say the passports will allow the country to emerge safely from the pandemic again and return to normal, while opponents say it restricts personal freedoms and privacy rights.
As of Monday, all 16-year-olds living, working or studying in New Jersey are eligible for a vaccine, about 6.9 million people. More than a third of adults in Garden State have already been fully vaccinated and more than half have received at least one dose.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott have already taken some form of executive action to ban vaccination passports. Meanwhile, New York has introduced the voluntary Excelsior permit to provide digital evidence of vaccine status or a negative COVID-19 test result.
Gov. Phil Murphy said he was open to the idea of passports, but that it was a matter for the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“You have, historically, here and now, an under-representation of valid government IDs in disadvantaged communities, especially in communities of color,” he said recently. “But it’s something I’d say I’m open-minded about.”
The CDC should provide guidance on how states should enforce passports, he added.
The Biden administration has said it will issue guidelines on vaccine passports, but will leave details to states.
According to Holzapfel’s bill, it would be illegal to ask people to get vaccinated or to prove that they are vaccinated so that they can travel to New Jersey or elsewhere; participates in sports programs; enroll in childcare, school or college; receive medical or dental care; run a business or enter a business; enter a government facility or a public park or beach; or attend a concert, theater, amusement park or sporting event.
Employers would not be allowed to condition the employment of a person or refuse a promotion based on the vaccination file, according to the bill.
Anyone found to have violated the ban could be forced to pay $ 25,000 in civil damages plus attorney’s fees, the bill says.
Rutgers University announced in March that it would require 71,000 students to be vaccinated before the fall semester, although it would allow medical and religious exemptions. However, the university does not require faculties and staff, who have demonstrated a lower positivity rate than students, to get vaccinated, officials said.
Fairleigh Dickinson University will also ask students to get vaccinated if they live on campus in the fall, attend in-person classes, or participate in any in-person activities.
According to a press release, two members of the Republican Assembly have already signed to introduce the appropriate legislation in the Assembly. However, the bill should pass the Senate and Democratic-controlled Assembly and be signed by the governor to become law.
“We do not believe that our state government should threaten or allow the restriction of personal freedoms based on vaccination status,” Deputy Greg McGuckin, R-Ocean, an Assembly sponsor, said in a statement. Applying for vaccine passports to engage in day-to-day activities would be discriminatory and raise a number of serious constitutional and confidentiality concerns. This fatal flawed idea must be stung in the bud. ”
A second bill, introduced by Sen. Michael Testa, R-Cumberland, on Monday would prevent the New Jersey government from forcing customers to protect their customers for vaccination.
Reporter NJ Advance Media Karin Price Mueller contributed to this report.
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Samantha Marcus May be reached to [email protected].