Summary
Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing multiple religious New York City educators filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking it to review a lower court decision that denies the educators’ ability to live and work according to their religious beliefs. The educators are challenging a city mandate that required them to receive a vaccination in conflict with their deeply held religious beliefs.
After the pandemic, New York City officials ordered that all public-education employees receive a COVID-19 vaccine or lose their jobs. The city created a religious exemption, but only for “recognized” religions whose spiritual leader, according to officials, had not publicly supported the vaccine. This meant that Christian Scientists received an automatic exemption, but Catholics were ineligible for one. Under this discriminatory regime, over 100 educators belonging to city-approved religions were accommodated while thousands more were denied.
