New York Workers Denied Religious Exemptions From COVID Vaccine Mandates Weigh Next Steps After Appeals Court Sides With City

A federal appeals court last week ruled against most New York City employees who sued the city after it denied their COVID-19 vaccine religious exemption requests.

However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit also ruled the city may have violated the constitutional rights of two of the plaintiffs, whose cases it sent back to the lower court.

The ruling related to three lawsuits: New Yorkers for Religious Liberty v. City of New York, whose plaintiffs included firefighters, police officers, sanitation workers, teachers and other public employees; and Kane v. de Blasio and Keil v. City of New York, both brought by teachers and school administrators.

The first of the cases was filed in 2021, shortly after then-Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the COVID-19 vaccine mandates and the city denied employees’ petitions for religious accommodations.