Tipsheet

ICYMI: Spain's Supreme Court Just Torched a Local COVID Passport Push

I know with Afghanistan collapsing, Biden being AWOL, American troops being killed in Kabul, and the ongoing COVID pandemic—some stuff fell through the cracks. Yet, the panic peddlers are still pushing for mandatory vaccinations, mask mandates, and other protocols that simply did not curb the spread of COVID months ago. Now, we have this COVID passport idea that should send chills down everyone’s spines. It’s not new. This idea of showing vaccination status to enter certain public spaces has been floated for weeks. It’s still a joint project where government and Big Tech join forces which should cause hesitation. In France, their COVID passport policy recently went into effect with disconcerting footage of police asking Parisians at cafes and other locations to show their passports. Yet, in Spain, where one local government tried to enact such an initiative, the nation’s Supreme Court shot it down, citing it failed its “proportionality test” (via EuroWeeklyNews):

The Andalucian Government had hoped to use a COVID passport control entry to hotels, nightlife venues and nightclubs across Andalucia. The Supreme Court has now rejected this request. The court believes that the proposed measure “does not pass the proportionality test” and that it shows a “justification deficit”. Therefore, it has decided to stand by the decision previously taken by the Superior Court of Justice of Andalucia.

This basically means that anyone in Andalucia will not have to show a vaccination certificate or a negative PCR test which was taken in the last 72 hours in order to enter nightclubs, restaurants and bars. The government of Moreno Bonilla had requested these measures, but Supreme Court have decided to overturn the request.

The decision was made on two main arguments. The first is that the measure is not sufficiently justified. For the measure to be justified the government in Andalucia would need to prove “that the so-called fifth wave originates precisely in nightlife venues.”

In July, Spain's Supreme Court ruled that last year's lockdown was unconstitutional. 

Circling back to the COVID passport idea, it's a policy that's been popping up here, like in places like New York City. The Big Apple recently passed a vaccine mandate for its workers and there’s no opt-out. No nationwide attempts have been made due to the fiasco in Afghanistan and the looming midterm elections, but there’s no doubt Biden and the Democrats want mandates for everything. It could be worse. In Australia, which is abiding by a COVID zero policy, they’re pretty much keeping their citizens locked inside. They need permission to leave the country—and some localities have begun building what look like COVID concentration camps.