Tue Oct 12, 2021 – 10:00 pm EDT
(Thomas More Society) — On October 12, U.S. District Judge David N. Hurd granted a preliminary injunction to 17 medical health professionals who hold religious objections to the COVID-19 vaccines.
The statewide injunction prevents New York from enforcing employers’ compliance with a “vaccine mandate,” issued August 26. That mandate excludes exemptions for religious reasons while allowing exemptions for medical reasons. Thomas More Society attorneys initially filed for federal court relief from this discrimination and constitutional violation on September 14.
Judge Hurd’s decision holds that the health professionals are likely to succeed at trial on their claim that the mandate unlawfully forecloses the remedy of religious accommodation afforded under Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964. In a major victory for religious liberty in the face of what attorneys have labeled “draconian COVID-19 regimes,” Hurd further held that the mandate also likely violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment because it is not a neutral law, but rather allows medical exemptions while precluding religious exemptions.
The mandate fails the legal requirement of “narrow tailoring” of non-neutral laws that impact religion because New York failed
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