Virginia AG: State colleges can't mandate COVID-19 vaccines

Virginia's new attorney general says state colleges and universities cannot require students to get vaccinated against COVID-19

RICHMOND, Va. -- State colleges and universities in Virginia cannot require students to get vaccinated against COVID-19, under a legal opinion issued Friday by Virginia’s new Republican attorney general.

Attorney General Jason Miyares found that because the state legislature has not passed legislation specifically mandating coronavirus vaccines for students, the colleges and universities don’t have the authority to require them.

State lawmakers “specifically authorized” colleges and universities to help health officials with administering vaccines, but they "did not grant such institutions power to impose vaccine requirements,” Miyares wrote in a letter to Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who sought an advisory opinion on the issue.

“I conclude that, absent specific authority conferred by the General Assembly, public institutions of higher education in Virginia may not require vaccination against COVID-19 as a general condition of students’ enrollment or in-person attendance,” Miyares wrote.