Healthcare workers refusing to be vaccinated are being legally fired under the mandate
A divided 6-3 U.S. Supreme Court on Friday, October 29, rejected claims by healthcare workers seeking a religious exemption to Maine’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The ruling was made in Doe v. Mills (citation below). They had objected to receiving the shots on religious grounds. Maine has adopted a regulation requiring certain healthcare workers to receive COVID-19 vaccines if they wish to keep their jobs. “Unlike comparable rules in most other States, Maine’s rule contains no exemption for those whose sincerely held religious beliefs preclude them from accepting the vaccination.” The Court previously rejected challenges to vaccine mandates in New York and Indiana, though those cases did not involve religious objections.
In Maine, “healthcare workers who have served on the front line of a pandemic for the last 18 months are now being fired and their practices shuttered,” conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in a dissenting opinion. He was joined by Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito.
Maine Governor Janet Mills’ administration had required that all healthcare workers in the state be fully vaccinated by the beginning of October, but had not said the mandate would be enforced until Friday, October 29. The governor argued workers perform a critical role in protecting the health of Maine’s residents and that every precaution needed to be taken to protect against the spread of the coronavirus, especially because of the Delta variant.
The challengers argued that the lack of a religious exemption violated their right to free exercise of religion under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. A majority on the Supreme Court disagreed.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor in October had refused to block New York City’s public school requirement that teachers and employees be vaccinated. Justice Amy Coney Barrett in August denied an effort by Indiana University students to block that school’s vaccination mandate.
Also on Friday, October 29, a federal appeals court in New York ruled that the state could move ahead with its healthcare vaccine mandate, which like Maine’s did not allow religious exemptions. A lower court judge had ruled the state had to allow such exemptions.