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Anonymous ID: 05fbda Oct. 12, 2021, 4:01 p.m. No.14774399   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>4564 >>4570 >>4664 >>4673 >>4678 >>4692 >>4886 >>5027

NY must keep religious exemption in COVID vaccine mandate for medical workers, judge rules

https://www.uticaod.com/story/news/coronavirus/2021/10/12/ny-must-keep-religious-exemption-covid-vaccine-mandate/6101969001/

 

A federal judge issued a ruling Tuesday requiring New York to allow religious exemptions to the state's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for medical workers.

U.S. Northern District Justice David Hurd of Utica granted a preliminary injunction temporarily barring New York state and employers from enforcing the COVID-19 vaccine mandate against medical workers claiming a legitimate religious exemption.

The order comes after Hurd last month issued a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of the mandate in relation to religious beliefs, citing a lawsuit that claimed the removal of a religious exemption was unconstitutional.

The mandate required most medical workers statewide to get the first COVID-19 vaccine dose by Sept. 27, or lose their jobs. It prodded about 55,000 workers to get the shot, but left the fate of at least 35,600 other workers refusing shots uncertain.

Many of the medical workers who had claimed religious exemptions had been placed on suspensions pending the outcome of the court battle. These workers, potentially numbering in the thousands, could now return to jobs as some hospitals and nursing homes face staffing shortages, according to interviews with health leaders.

The lawsuit was filed by 17 Catholic and Baptist medical workers, who claimed in part the state's removal of the religious exemption violated federal laws requiring employers provide reasonable accommodations to employee's religious beliefs. They noted they opposed taking the shots due to the vaccines' connections to aborted fetal cells, court records show.

None of the three available vaccines contain fetal cell tissue, though the Johnson & Johnson vaccine used laboratory grown cells that have roots dating back to fetal cells from decades ago, according to the UCLA Health system. Pfizer and Moderna used similar lab-grown cells while testing their vaccines.

In his order Tuesday, Hurd noted the medical workers were likely to prevail in proving the removal of the religious exemption violated federal laws.

"The question presented by this case is not whether plaintiffs and other individuals are entitled to a religious exemption from the State’s workplace vaccination requirement," he wrote.

"Instead, the question is whether the State’s summary imposition of (the law) conflicts with plaintiffs’ and other individuals’ federally protected right to seek a religious accommodation from their individual employers," he wrote, adding the answer was "clearly yes."

The order struck a blow to Gov. Kathy Hochul's ongoing efforts to enforce strict COVID-19 vaccine mandates, which she has repeatedly called a priority in slowing the virus' spread.