Federal Court Allows Michigan Migrant Worker Covid-19 Test Rule

Michigan farmers must continue testing migrant workers for Covid-19 before laborers can hit the fields, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

A three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit denied a motion from farmers and workers urging an emergency block on Michigan’s testing requirements for the virus. Plaintiffs claim the rules discriminate against Latino workers and severely strain the harvests of small farms.

In August, state health officials issued a first-in-the-nation order requiring a baseline negative Covid-19 test for employees at many agricultural operations, and isolating housing for migrant workers. The rules were an attempt to stem the spread of Covid-19 from farm to farm and help a Latino worker population considered vulnerable to the disease because of low earnings and poor access to health care.

Small farms see the rule as a potential threat to their existence. Michigan grows about 1 billion pounds of apples annually, and harvests at orchards and other farms are assisted by thousands of migrant workers who might refuse to take the Covid-19 test out of fear it could sideline them from work.

While the panel did grant a motion to expedite oral arguments in the case, panel members also warned the Michigan farmers and workers that they were unlikely to win.

A lower court didn’t err in finding that the state’s law was race-neutral, the judges ruled, and just because health officials weighed the impacts of Covid-19 on Latinos that alone doesn’t show the testing rules had an “improper purpose” that would violate the U.S. Constitution.

The case is Castillo v. Whitmer, 6th Cir., No. 20-1815, preliminary injunction denied 9/2/20.