The Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge from New York healthcare workers who lost their jobs after the state stripped religious exemptions from its COVID-19 vaccine mandate, leaving in place a lower-court ruling against them.
The case, Doe v. Hochul, was brought by New York healthcare workers who were fired after refusing COVID-19 vaccination on religious grounds. They argued their terminations violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which requires employers to accommodate sincere religious beliefs absent undue hardship.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled against them, finding that accommodating the workers would have forced their employers to violate the state vaccine regulation and risk financial penalties or loss of their operating licenses, an undue hardship as a matter of law. The Supreme Court’s denial leaves that ruling intact.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, dissented from the denial, writing that the 2nd Circuit’s rule would let state laws override federal civil rights protections, warning that the standard means “civil rights protected by federal law will give way whenever a contrary state law” is in play.
In an amicus brief, the federal government agreed that Title VII preempts incompatible state laws but argued the case did not warrant the court’s review.
The denial marks the third time the high court has turned away appeals tied to New York’s mandate. The Supreme Court previously declined in 2021 to block enforcement of the mandate over religious objections, with the same three justices saying they would have supported a pause. The court denied a merits challenge in June 2022 for that case.
Those petitions arose from a separate suit, Dr. A. v. Hochul, in which 17 healthcare workers argued on constitutional Free Exercise grounds. The Doe case rested on a Title VII employment-discrimination theory.
New York rescinded its healthcare worker vaccine mandate in 2023 after a state judge ruled it exceeded the health department’s authority. Mr. Gorsuch also pointed to a circuit split on the underlying question, noting that Maine healthcare workers raised the same Title VII conflict out of the 1st Circuit.
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