Religious exemption granted, for now, to unvaccinated NY nurses

MANHATTAN (CN) — New York state must grant temporary exemptions to unvaccinated health care workers who say their religion forbids them from following the state’s Covid vaccine mandate, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday afternoon.

A day after hearing in-person arguments, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted a motion for an injunction pending appeal staying the enforcement of New York’s Covid-19 vaccination mandate against health care workers who have religious exemptions.

Cameron Atkinson, the Connecticut-based attorney representing three New York-based Christian nurses on their appeal, celebrated the appellate ruling Thursday afternoon but noted that one of the plaintiffs, Long Island nurse Diane Bono, had been already been fired since the a three-judge panel heard oral arguments on Wednesday morning.

“Prior to the Second Circuit issuing its order, Northwell Health has terminated my client, Diane Bono, and told her in the termination meeting that New York’s mandate compelled its actions,” Atkinson wrote in a blog post.

“Today, Diane Bono chose her faith over her job, and Governor Hochul got what she has connived to get all along: the discriminatory termination of a dedicated nurse who has faithfully served her community for 39 years,” Atkinson wrote. “The First Amendment and Title VII prohibit this travesty, and we will continue to fight to vindicate Ms. Bono’s rights."

Those claiming religious objection point to the remote connection that the vaccines have to laboratory use of a fetal cell line harvested from aborted fetuses acquired in the 1970s and 1980s. The Long Island plaintiffs in the case at hand have lobbed the same objection but were denied an injunction in the Eastern District of New York.

As they appeal for a reversal, they are among thousands of unvaccinated health care workers still hanging on to their jobs because of an injunction secured through a separate federal lawsuit in the Northern District of New York. 

The three-judge panel set oral arguments on health care workers’ appeal to take place on Thursday, Oct. 14, the same day that the appeals court will arguments in a separate challenge to New York City’s vaccine mandate brought by a group of vaccine-averse teachers.

Clinton-appointed U.S. Circuit Judges Pierre Leval and Robert Sack were joined on the appellate panel by U.S. Circuit Judge Michael Park, a Trump appointee.

More than 650,000 workers at hospitals and nursing homes in the Empire State had until Monday to get their first vaccine dose as part of a mandate that is among the strictest in the country, providing no option to test weekly rather than get vaccinated and contemplating no special religious dispensation.

Across the religious spectrum, there is near unanimity among major churches and denominations that every person eligible should immunize themselves against the novel coronavirus, which has killed more than 4.7 million people around the world as of Wednesday.

As of Wednesday morning, the governor’s office reported that 87% hospital staff are fully vaccinated, with preliminary data indicating at least 92% of nursing home staff receiving at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose.

The mandate comes as medical facilities are already hamstrung from staff shortages fueled in part by workers retiring and employees seeking other jobs after a year and a half of the pandemic.

In New York City, all public school teachers and staff are required be vaccinated by 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 1, so that by Monday, Oct. 4, 100% of educators and staff in the city’s buildings will be vaccinated.

“The three-judge panel definitively, once and for all, said the federal appeals court, the City of New York has a right to put a vaccine mandate in place for the adults who work in our public schools, period,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Tuesday morning during an appearance on the “Inside City Hall” talk show. “End of process. Nothing else to discuss. Federal appeals exhausted, done,” the mayor added. “The mandate moves forward.”

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