State Supreme Court to consider Ochsner vaccine mandates

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana’s Supreme Court will hear arguments next month on whether the state’s largest health care provider can require its employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Cases involving Ochsner Health employees in the Shreveport and Lafayette areas have been consolidated by the state’s highest court. A hearing is set for Dec. 7. Shreveport Ochsner employees opposed to the vaccine requirement won a decision at the state’s 2nd Circuit Court of Appeal, which blocked the mandate last month. But in the Lafayette area, a challenge to Ochsner’s requirement was rejected by the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal, which covers 21 southwest and central Louisiana parishes.