The First Amendment ensures the government cannot pick and choose which religious beliefs deserve protection under the law. But that’s exactly what New York City tried to do in its enforcement of various COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
Many New Yorkers lost their jobs, homes, and livelihoods because the city refused to accommodate their religious beliefs, and that was a blatant violation of the Constitution.
New York discriminates against certain religions
A group of religious New York educators first sued the city of New York in February 2022. At the time, New York City had multiple COVID-19 vaccine mandates, including one that applied to all city employees.
Many New York City employees applied for exemptions from the mandate, but the city used arbitrary methods to pick and choose which employees would receive exemptions.
The mandates carved out exceptions for athletes, strippers, and entertainers, and the city favored some religious denominations over others when deciding whether to grant religious exemptions to individual employees.
New York City’s religious exemption was reserved for “recognized” religions whose spiritual leader, according to officials, had not publicly supported the vaccine. This meant that while Christian Scientists and Jehovah’s Witnesses received an automatic exemption, Catholics were ineligible for one.
City officials refuse to soften
After the educators challenged New York City’s discrimination, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled that the city had likely violated the First Amendment in its enforcement of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The court ordered the city to enforce the mandate using a new standard.
But New York City continued using an unconstitutional standard.
The city claimed it could continue enforcing discriminatory standards because it had created a separate review process for people with religious beliefs that were not favored under the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
But employees who held those beliefs were sent to a citywide panel, and they were given the additional task of proving that granting them a religious exemption to the mandate would not put an “undue burden” on the city.
Since New York City continued to discriminate against some people in the enforcement of its vaccine mandate, the religious educators once again asked the 2nd Circuit to halt enforcement of the mandate in October 2022.
In February 2023, two days before oral arguments were set to take place at the 2nd Circuit, New York City announced it would discontinue the vaccine mandate for city employees. But this last-minute attempt could not fix the harms that the policy had caused for many New Yorkers.
Many employees lost their jobs and livelihoods simply for following their religious beliefs, and the educators asked the 2nd Circuit to hold New York officials accountable for the damage they caused. Unfortunately, the 2nd Circuit declined to do so.
ADF appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court
Even though New York City eventually lifted its vaccine mandate for city employees, it had already ruined the livelihoods of many of its citizens. And considering that the New York City mayor issued over 150 versions of vaccine mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic, what is to stop future mayors from issuing different employment mandates with the same unconstitutional problem?
Hardworking New Yorkers have a right to pursue damages against the city for its actions and seek assurance that these constitutional violations will not happen again.
That’s why Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in July 2025 on behalf of the religious educators.
All Americans should be free to peacefully exercise their religious beliefs, and government officials have no business picking winners and losers when it comes to religious convictions.
Kane v. City of New York
- October 2022: Serving as co-counsel for a group of religious New York educators, ADF attorneys asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit to halt enforcement of New York City’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
- February 2023: Oral arguments took place at the 2nd Circuit.
- January 2025: The 2nd Circuit ruled against the religious educators.
- February 2025: The 2nd Circuit denied rehearing the case.
- July 2025: ADF attorneys appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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