US Supreme Court Declines To Block New York Vaccine Mandate For Religiously Exempt Health Care Workers
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to halt the COVID-19 mandate for health care workers in New York who have claimed religious exemption.
A lawsuit was filed by a group of 20 doctors and nurses who contend the vaccine mandate abridges the First Amendment and the Constitution by disqualifying religious exemption.
The emergency request for an injunction was presented to Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who presides over New York cases.
JUST IN – U.S. Supreme Court declines to block New York vaccine mandate for health care workers that does not allow religious exemptions.
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) December 13, 2021
Three of the high court’s six-member conservative majority, Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito, said they would have granted the request to block the mandate.
The Supreme Court failed not only the medical providers seeking relief, but the justices “fail ourselves,” Gorsuch lamented in a 14-page dissent that Alito joined.
“Now, thousands of New York healthcare workers face the loss of their jobs and eligibility for unemployment benefits,” he wrote. “Today, our Nation faces not a world war but a pandemic. Like wars, though, pandemics often produce demanding new social rules aimed at protecting collective interests — and with those rules can come fear and anger at individuals unable to conform for religious reasons.”
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo included a religious exemption in his proposed vaccine mandate, but the sitting Governor Kathy Hochul annulled the exemption measure.
MORE – This is the first landmark decision regarding compulsory vaccinations in the United States by SCOTUS. 3 dissents: Alito, Gorsuch, and Thomas. Roberts, Barrett, and Kavanaugh sided with the liberals.
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) December 13, 2021
Last week, Chief Justice John Roberts refused to overturn Joe Biden’s federal transportation mask mandate, effectively barring a four-year-old disabled boy who is unable to wear face coverings from prolonged periods from air travel for medical treatment.
