Court temporarily blocks COVID-19 vaccine mandate for NY health workers seeking religious exemption

The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals has temporarily granted a partial injunction forcing the state of New York to allow state health care workers to request religious exemptions from Democratic Gov. Kathleen Hochul’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

The three-judge panel issued the decision on Thursday, one day after an attorney for three nurses argued that the mandate violated their religious rights. 

The injunction will be in place until the next hearing scheduled for Oct. 14. A federal court in Utica last week ruled in a similar case and temporarily blocked the vaccine mandate for those seeking a religious exemption until Oct. 12.

Thursday’s ruling comes days after the governor’s order went into effect, requiring state health care workers to get a vaccine or a medical exemption — or face suspension or termination. Hundreds of health care workers have lost their jobs since the order took effect and Ms. Hochul signed an executive order this week granting her more power to help deal with worker shortages. 

We The Patriots USA, Inc., the conservative nonprofit that represents the nurses, said it was “delighted” by the court’s reprieve.

“No government or corporation should ever be able to tell you what to put in your body or what to believe,” the nonprofit said.

During a hearing on Wednesday, the circuit judges brought up the other injunction already in place until Oct. 12 and questioned the need for a second.

Cameron Atkinson, lead attorney for the Connecticut-based nonprofit, argued the group of Christian nurses he represents should not “be dependent on the outcome of other proceedings.”

“They’re on a ticking clock,” he said. “As soon as that clock swings in the direction of the orders being lifted, … my clients are left hung out to dry — they’re fired on the spot the next day.”

Mr. Atkinson also said one of the nurses he represents was fired after the order went into effect earlier in the week, which he called a “discriminatory termination.”

Meanwhile, New York Deputy Solicitor General Steven Wu argued that the regulation does not run afoul of that constitutional right because it does not target or display hostility to religion and it applies to all health care workers. 

Asked why there is a medical exemption but not a religious exemption, he said there was a “desire” to make it consistent with mandates for measles and rubella vaccines, which also only include medical exemptions. He added that religious exemptions generally exceed medical exemptions by a “significant” amount.

Mr. Wu said the governor’s order came in response to “very serious” concerns over the highly transmissible COVID-19 delta variant, “which has really swamped the diagnoses that are taking place across the state.”