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Network for Public Health Law
Constitutional Rights and the Public’s Health

Burcham v. City of Los Angeles

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Overview

Burcham v. City of Los Angeles (U.S. District Court, C.D. Cal., Jan. 27, 2022): City police department employees brought an action against the city, mayor, police chief, and city administrator alleging that a city ordinance requiring employees to disclose their COVID-19 vaccination status or undergo testing resulted in numerous constitutional violations, including arguments pursuant to the Fourth Amendment, right to privacy, substantive due process, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, and Fair Employment and Housing Act religious protections violations. Plaintiffs sought to halt the ordinance’s enforcement, while Defendants moved to dismiss. The district court upheld the ordinance and granted Defendants’ motion to dismiss, finding that the testing requirement constituted a reasonable special-needs search for Fourth Amendment purposes, did not violate employees’ right to privacy, was rationally related to the city’s legitimate interest in preventing the spread of COVID-19, and was not discriminatory. Read the full decision here.

View all cases in the Judicial Trends in Public Health – February 15, 2022.

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