Two courts recently ruled in favor of plaintiffs who were not granted their religious exemption requests on vaccine requirements, adding to a string of recent victories over dangerous inoculation mandates.
Since May, at least 10 appellate courts have issued decisions in favor of employees who sued their employers over Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) religious or moral exemptions actions or policies. (Related: Connecticut claims religious exemptions to mandatory child vaccinations somehow pose a threat to public health.)
In April 2022, Rachel Spivack sued her former boss, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, for violating her First Amendment rights and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Religious Freedom Protection Act. Krasner's office issued a vaccine mandate for all eligible employees in August 2021, about a month before Spivack, a non-unionized employee, began working there.
Spivack sought a religious exemption based on her Orthodox Jewish beliefs, submitting a letter from her rabbi and providing a detailed explanation of her religious beliefs, but Krasner ignored her request for COVID-19 vaccine exemption while allowing other types of exemptions.
According to the DA's office, they changed policy between August 2021 and January 2022, deciding to categorically deny all religious exemptions without individual assessment. However, his policy did allow a medical exemption for one employee and exemptions for unionized employees whose terms of employment are governed by their union contracts with the city rather than with his office. Spivack still attempted to work with the office to find ways to keep her job without getting vaccinated, offering to mask and test weekly, but the office refused and terminated her employment on April 8, 2022.
She sued Krasner and the city later that month. The District Court that first heard the case granted Krasner's motion for summary judgment, saying there was no evidence his decision was based on religious intolerance. But on July 29, the Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit reversed the decision and sent the case back for trial.
A reasonable jury could find that Krasner's comments "evince hostility toward religion that undermines" the neutrality of his office's policies, or it could also reach the opposite conclusion, the ruling said. Therefore, "neither party is entitled to summary judgment on neutrality" and the case should be heard by a jury.
"We are grateful that the Appeals Court recognized that these important issues deserve a jury's consideration,” Lea Patterson, who represented Spivack in court, said in a press release. "No American should lose her job for living according to her sincerely held religious beliefs."
Connecticut Supreme Court rules in favor of religious exemptions
Meanwhile, the Connecticut Supreme Court sent a case challenging Connecticut's school vaccine religious exemption policy back to the Superior Court for further review in relation to the state's Religious Freedom and Restoration Act.
In 2021, parents Keira Spillane and Anna Kehle sued the governor, the heads of the state's Education and Public Health departments, and a local school and board of education, arguing that the policy violated their and their children's rights to freely exercise religion, to equal protection of the laws and to free public education.
The defendants appealed to the Connecticut Supreme Court, which reversed part of the lower court's decision, dismissing five of six counts against the plaintiffs and allowing the school vaccination mandate to remain in place. However, it sent the case back to the Superior Court to review the plaintiffs' claims.
"This decision is a victory for our plaintiffs and a victory for religious freedom in Connecticut and we look forward to pressing ahead with our injunction motion so that we can get these disenfranchised children back to school while we await our trial," said Brian Marks, professor of law and public health at the University of New Haven School of Health Sciences.
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Watch the video below that talks about the recent rulings in favor of the religious exemption lawsuits.
This video is from the Loki Luck III channel on Brighteon.com.
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