Holden v. Zucker
In the Spring of 2021, NYC Defenders (BDS joined NDS, BxD, and LAS) and the New York Civil Liberties Union challenged New York’s decision to exclude people in jails and prisons from being given priority access to life-saving COVID-19 vaccines. On March 29, the State Supreme Court in the Bronx ordered the state to immediately include incarcerated individuals in the category of people then eligible for vaccine access. The Court found that the government acted arbitrarily and capriciously, abused its discretion, and violated state and federal equal protection guarantees by excluding incarcerated individuals from vaccine eligibility while simultaneously extending eligibility to other similarly situated groups. The unlawful categorization, the Court determined, was “unfair and unjust,” and resulted in “great risk to incarcerated people’s lives during this pandemic.”
