WASHINGTON – Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing multiple religious New York City educators filed a petition Monday with the U.S. Supreme Court in Kane v. City of New York, 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.
ADF clients sued, and after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ordered the city to reevaluate the ADF clients’ accommodation requests under Title VII and local nondiscrimination standards, the city again denied almost all the religious accommodation requests for discriminatory reasons, even for employees who worked remotely and had no in-person contact with students or other staff. Two years later, the 2nd Circuit ruled against the educators, sparking the appeal to the Supreme Court.
“Our country was founded on the idea that religious people should be free to exercise their deeply held beliefs, and government officials have no business picking and choosing winners and losers when it comes to religious conviction,” said ADF Senior Counsel and Vice President of Appellate Advocacy John Bursch. “By mandating that these educators be vaccinated or lose their job, New York is putting a political agenda ahead of education. Just because Pope Francis may have supported the vaccine doesn’t mean that every Catholic will share that view, and we are urging the court to hear this case and bring justice to these educators and others like them for the discrimination they endured over a deeply personal decision.”
In the petition, ADF attorneys note that New York City officials allowed Christian Scientists and Jehovah’s Witnesses to claim exemptions from the policy, but others were denied. In some cases, educators were denied because their faith leader publicly endorsed vaccines, but in others, no explanation was given. “Petitioners are hardworking teachers and education administrators,” the petition states. “They sacrificed to serve New York students. But City officials pushed them out of their jobs—and even out of the City—because Petitioners had the ‘wrong’ faith.”
Barry Black of Nelson Madden Black LLP, along with Sujata Gibson of Gibson Law Firm PLLC, serve as co-counsel for the educators.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
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