Man loses bid to stop Covid-19 shots in Massachusetts in his fight to get back into law school

A federal judge today dismissed a Medfield man's legal attempt to block all Covid-19 shots in Massachusetts - and to have the state give him access to all autopsy reports dating to the start of the pandemic - saying neither had anything to do with his bid to get back into the Massachusetts School of Law in Andover after he was expelled for refusing a shot.

US District Court Judge Nathaniel Gorton sided with the state officials sued by John Paul Beaudoin, Sr. last year that he didn't have "standing" to bring the case, because he failed to show "concrete and particularized" harm caused by their Covid-19 orders and statements, in particular that they were not responsible for the way he was taken off the enrollment list at the law school.

First, plaintiff insists that he, like "all citizens of the Commonwealth," has been injured by the defendants’ purported efforts to mislead the public about COVID- 19 and the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine. Defendants correctly identify this to be the kind of "generalized grievance" about government conduct that the Supreme Court has repeatedly explained is "insufficient to confer [federal court] standing." Hollingsworth v. Perry, 570 U.S. 693, 706 (2013).

Gorton said Beaudoin might have a better case showing "concrete and particularized" harm was done him by the law school's decision to effectively expel him. But even if that were the case, the state had nothing directly to do with the school's decision, and Beaudoin's proposed solutions - giving him space and a powerful computer with which to go through autopsy reports and to stop Covid-19 shots - would not redress that alleged harm, Gorton contnued.

In the case at bar, plaintiff's alleged loss of his right to a legal education would in no way be redressed by a favorable decision. To rectify the alleged injury, plaintiff seeks broad and all- embracing relief that would require the Commonwealth to, among other things, audit its public health records and correct its past COVID-19 pronouncements. The alleged injury and requested relief are incongruous.

This is Beaudoin's second loss in a Covid-19-related lawsuit against the state in a case decided by Gorton. In 2021, Gorton dismissed his lawsuit seeking to block then Gov. Charlie Baker from requiring face masks in certain locations.