(AP/WBEN) - Not long after New York state officials launched a digital pass to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test, questions on the legalities of a 'Vaccine Passport' are abundant.
The State's 'Excelsior Pass' will be accepted at major entertainment venues like Madison Square Garden and Albany’s Times Union Center. The app is similar to a mobile airline boarding pass and uses a secure QR code that can be stored in a smartphone or printed out. Officials said the technology doesn’t store or track private health data within the app.
Vaccination passports have been used across the world in the past, but the state-by-state nature of restrictions raises some concern.
"The real question is whether or not certain states may say that they restrict travel or visits from people to their state unless their vaccinated," said Attorney Paul Cambria. "If that happens, we're talking about a federal situation because it would interfere with free travel from place to place."
Cambria said individual businesses are free to make their own rules on qualifications for entry, including whether or not to accept any vaccine passport. The level of restrictions placed on those who do not use the passport might determine if a challenge is raised to its constitutionality.
"I think what happens is if we get to a point where there's so much restrictions, then we're going to ask the federal government to step in and say now you're restricting free travel by individuals, which is a constitutional right," Cambria said.
In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis said that he would issue an executive order forbidding local governments and businesses from requiring “vaccine passports.”
“It’s completely unacceptable for either the government or the private sector to impose upon you the requirement that you show proof of vaccine to just simply participate in normal society,” the governor said.
DeSantis said allowing governments and businesses to require proof of vaccinations would be “an unprecedented expansion” of public and private power.
But the governor seemed to differentiate between COVID-19 vaccinations and requiring parents to show proof to schools that their children have been protected against other infectious diseases such as the measles, which he called “more problematic.”