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U.S. Supreme Court’s Sotomayor Denies Challenge to N.Y. COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate
(CTN NEWS) – On Thursday, Sonia Sotomayor, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, dismissed a challenge to the COVID-19 vaccine requirement
They include sanitation workers, police officers, firefighters, teachers, and others who lost their employment after the city denied their plea for a religious exemption.
They submitted an emergency application to Sotomayor to temporarily halt the COVID-19 Vaccine requirement while they contest the city in a lower court.
Despite not being compelled to contact her coworkers, Sotomayor declined their request without making a statement.
According to John Busch, an employee attorney, “We’re dismayed that Justice Sotomayor is ready to permit NYC’s blatant religious discrimination to continue.”
The employees contended that New York City had infringed their right to “freely express their faith” by making them choose between keeping their employment and receiving the vaccine, which went against their “sincere religious views,” in a legal submission to the Supreme Court last week.
Alliance Defending Freedom’s civil rights attorneys, who are representing the workers, claim:
Their clients “are facing the loss of their First Amendment rights, moving out of homes in foreclosure or past-due rents, suffering health issues as a result of the loss of their city health insurance and the stress of not having a regular income, and relying on food stamps and Medicaid just to survive,” in the interim.
Bursch said at the time of the filing to Fox News Digital:
“As we write in our emergency application for stay, These city heroes have dedicated their lives to helping their neighbours and maintaining the efficiency and safety of their city,
yet they were fired and placed on administrative leave because they could not receive the COVID-19 vaccine without going against their sincere religious beliefs.”
“However, the city made exceptions for performers, sportsmen, and strippers.”
In their complaint, the Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Buddhist employees claimed that the city’s “totally discretionary” standards went against their religious convictions.
According to the brief:
“A city never answered why a city sanitation worker cannot pick up trash outside with almost zero individual contact without a vaccination that violates his religious beliefs, whereas an unvaccinated stripper can spend hours close to clients in an interior setting,”
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