8 states have already signed legislation banning vaccine passports

[SAguide]

Republicans in states including Arkansas and Montana are pushing to

give unvaccinated people the same civil rights protections as those based

on race, gender and religion - as the US vaccination rate stalls at 68%

• Arkansas and Montana Governors Asa Hutchinson and Greg Gianforte signed legislation that bans discrimination on the basis of vaccination status
  

• Eight GOP states have also already banned so-called vaccine passports 
  
• Republicans are pushing forward with laws that give unvaccinated Americans the same protections awarded on the basis of gender, religion and race
  
• The latest bills come as the national vaccine effort has slowed substantially
  

Arkansas and Montana Governors Asa Hutchinson (left) and Greg Gianforte (right) signed into law legislation that bans

private and public entities in their respective states from discriminating on the basis of vaccination status against COVID-19

'When we think about the normal discrimination statutes,' Pearson said, 'we have protected classes based on something that is sort of inherent to you, with religion maybe being the one that is a choice.'
'But vaccination status you certainly can control,' he added.
Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Montana, Oklahoma and South Dakota, all states with Republican governors, have already banned so-called 'vaccine passports.' A slew of Republicans in other states have proposed such legislation, but many are doomed to fail as they are in Democrat-run areas.

Montana and Arkansas specifically have made it unlawful to discriminate on the basis of vaccination status – similar to anti-discrimination laws related to gender identity, race and religion.
New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination prohibits requiring a COVID-19 vaccine only in cases of disability, doctor guidance against the jab or 'sincere held religious beliefs.'
'An individual may not be required to receive any vaccine whose use is allowed under an emergency use authorization or any vaccine undergoing safety trials,' reads Montana's bill, which was signed May 7, 2021 and immediately put into effect.

STATES' CORONAVIRUS VACCINE-RELATED LAWS 
Anti-discrimination laws 
Montana: 'An individual may not be required to receive any vaccine whose use is allowed under an emergency use authorization or any vaccine undergoing safety trials.'

The law bars discrimination in form of denying a person 'services, goods, facilities, advantages, privileges, licensing, educational opportunities, health care access, or employment opportunities based on vaccination status'   
Arkansas: 'The state, a state agency or entity, a political subdivision of the state, or a state or local official shall not discriminate against or coerce in any way an individual for refusing to receive a vaccine or immunization for coronavirus.'

House Bill 1547 bars 'coercion' in forms of threats, conditional employment and benefits or 'positive incentives' to those who do receive the COVID-19 vaccine. 
New Jersey: 'An employer can require that an employee receive the COVID-19 vaccine in order to return to the workplace, unless the employee cannot get the vaccine because of a disability, because their doctor has advised them not to get the vaccine while pregnant or breastfeeding, or because of a sincerely held religious belief, practice or observance.'  
The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination prohibits employers from mandating anything an employee is religiously against – including vaccines.

Proposed legislation
Student exemptions: Minnesota, New York, South Dakota and Tennessee 
Banning vaccine Passports: Kansas, Minnesota, Vermont

States that have already banned 'vaccine passports': Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Montana, Oklahoma, South Dakota