Religious exemption stays for NY health workers; NYC teachers in court

Vaccine mandates in court

Federal judges in New York handed down two new rulings on COVID vaccine requirements.

NEW YORK - A federal judge ruled Tuesday that New York must continue to allow health care workers to seek exemptions from a statewide COVID-19 vaccine mandate on religious grounds as a lawsuit challenging the requirement proceeds.

This came as a judge in Lower Manhattan presided over a hearing by 10 New York City teachers fighting the mandate also on religious grounds.

Judge David Hurd in Utica had issued a temporary restraining order a month ago after 17 doctors, nurses and other health professionals claimed in a lawsuit that their rights would be violated with a vaccine mandate that disallowed the exemptions.

Hurd's preliminary injunction Tuesday means New York will continue to be barred from enforcing any requirement that employers deny religious exemptions.

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Hurd wrote that the health care workers suing the state were likely to succeed on the merits of their constitutional claim. The question presented in this case, Hurd wrote, is whether the mandate "conflicts with plaintiffs' and other individuals' federally protected right to seek a religious accommodation from their individual employers. The answer to this question is clearly yes."

NYC teachers in court over mandate

New York City teachers were back in court in Lower Manhattan in the fight to block vaccine mandates for religious exemptions.

Gov. Kathy Hochul's administration began requiring workers at hospitals and nursing homes to be vaccinated on Sept. 27 and more recently expanded the requirement to include workers at assisted living homes, hospice care, treatment centers and home health aides.

"My responsibility as Governor is to protect the people of this state, and requiring health care workers to get vaccinated accomplishes that," said Gov. Kathy Hochul. "I stand behind this mandate, and I will fight this decision in court to keep New Yorkers safe."

The state has not provided information on the total number of health care workers who have sought religious exemptions.

NYC vaccine mandate protests

Mayor Bill de Blasio said 95% of all staff for the Department of Education has at least one dose of the COVID vaccine as of Monday, Oct. 4.

The plaintiffs, all Christians, oppose as a matter of religious conviction any medical cooperation in abortion, including the use of vaccines linked to fetal cell lines in testing, development or production, according to court papers.

Several types of cell lines created decades ago using fetal tissue exist and are widely used in medical manufacturing, but the cells in them today are clones of the early cells, not the original tissue.

SCOTUS shuts down request by NYC teachers to block vax mandate

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor denied a request for an emergency injunction that would have stopped New York City's vaccine mandate for Department of Education staff.

The COVID-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson is produced by using an adenovirus that is grown using retinal cells that trace to a fetus from 1985, according to the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a January statement that "abortion-derived" cell lines were used to test the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines but not in their development or production.

Hurd also allowed the plaintiffs to keep their identities private by using pseudonyms such as "Dr. A." and "Nurse J." The plaintiffs said they wanted to proceed anonymously because they feared the risk of ostracization or retaliation.

With The Associated Press.

NYC teachers confusion over mandate

United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew said despite the COVID vaccine mandate for teachers being put on hold, some reported that their health screening system has told them to go home.