The Court of Appeal, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge Stein, reversing the Appellate Division, determined that the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the NYC Board of Health properly amended the health code to provide that children between the ages of 6 and 59 months who attended city regulated child care or school programs must receive annual flu vaccinations. The court went through all the Boreali (71 NY2d 11-14) factors, as well as all the preemption theories:
Separation of powers challenges often involve the question of whether a regulatory body has exceeded the scope of its delegated powers and encroached upon the legislative domain of policymaking … . * * *
In Boreali and subsequent cases, we have clarified the “difficult-to-define line between administrative rule-making and legislative policy-making” by articulating four “coalescing circumstances” relevant to rendering such a determination (71 NY2d at 11 …). These circumstances are: whether (1) the regulatory agency ” balanc[ed] costs and benefits according to preexisting guidelines,’ or instead made value judgments entail[ing] difficult and complex choices between broad policy goals to resolve social problems'”… ; (2) the agency “merely filled in details of a broad policy or if it wrote on a clean slate, creating its own comprehensive set of rules without benefit of legislative guidance'” … ; (3) the legislature had unsuccessfully attempted to enact laws pertaining to the issue… ; and (4) the agency used special technical expertise in the applicable field … . * * *
Public Health Law §§ 2164 and 2165 set forth mandatory vaccinations that are preconditions to enrollment in school and in institutions of higher education. Those statutes include exemptions, incorporate an appeal process, and explain the procedures to be followed when a student is unable to afford the necessary vaccinations. Taking each of the aforementioned statutes into consideration, the Appellate Division correctly determined that the flu vaccine rules are not preempted by state law. Garcia v New York City Dept. of Health & Mental Hygiene, 2018 NY Slip Op 04778, CtApp 6-28-18
ADMINISTRATIVE LAW (FLU VACCINES, NYC DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND BOARD OF HEALTH DID NOT VIOLATE THE SEPARATION OF POWERS BY PROMULGATING HEALTH CODE PROVISIONS REQUIRING YOUNG CHILDREN IN CITY REGULATED PROGRAMS TO RECEIVE FLU VACCINATIONS, NOR ARE THE CODE PROVISIONS PREEMPTED BY STATE LAW (CT APP))/MUNICIPAL LAW (FLU VACCINES, NYC DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND BOARD OF HEALTH DID NOT VIOLATE THE SEPARATION OF POWERS BY PROMULGATING HEALTH CODE PROVISIONS REQUIRING YOUNG CHILDREN IN CITY REGULATED PROGRAMS TO RECEIVE FLU VACCINATIONS, NOR ARE THE CODE PROVISIONS PREEMPTED BY STATE LAW (CT APP))/FLU VACCINES (NYC DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND BOARD OF HEALTH DID NOT VIOLATE THE SEPARATION OF POWERS BY PROMULGATING HEALTH CODE PROVISIONS REQUIRING YOUNG CHILDREN IN CITY REGULATED PROGRAMS TO RECEIVE FLU VACCINATIONS, NOR ARE THE CODE PROVISIONS PREEMPTED BY STATE LAW (CT APP))/SEPARATION OF POWERS (FLU VACCINES, NYC DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND BOARD OF HEALTH DID NOT VIOLATE THE SEPARATION OF POWERS BY PROMULGATING HEALTH CODE PROVISIONS REQUIRING YOUNG CHILDREN IN CITY REGULATED PROGRAMS TO RECEIVE FLU VACCINATIONS, NOR ARE THE CODE PROVISIONS PREEMPTED BY STATE LAW (CT APP))/PREEMPTION (ADMINISTRATIVE LAW, NYC DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND BOARD OF HEALTH DID NOT VIOLATE THE SEPARATION OF POWERS BY PROMULGATING HEALTH CODE PROVISIONS REQUIRING YOUNG CHILDREN IN CITY REGULATED PROGRAMS TO RECEIVE FLU VACCINATIONS, NOR ARE THE CODE PROVISIONS PREEMPTED BY STATE LAW (CT APP))/DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH (NYC) (FLU VACCINES, NYC DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND BOARD OF HEALTH DID NOT VIOLATE THE SEPARATION OF POWERS BY PROMULGATING HEALTH CODE PROVISIONS REQUIRING YOUNG CHILDREN IN CITY REGULATED PROGRAMS TO RECEIVE FLU VACCINATIONS, NOR ARE THE CODE PROVISIONS PREEMPTED BY STATE LAW (CT APP))