Judge David Hurd of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York temporarily blocked a state mandate forcing medical workers to be vaccinated as a condition of employment.
The order comes after a group of health care workers sued Gov. Kathy Hochul and other state officials. The health care professionals argued their constitutional rights were being violated given the mandate did not allow religious exemptions.
Their religious beliefs compelled the plaintiffs “to refuse vaccination with the available COVID-19 vaccines, all of which employ aborted fetus cell lines in their testing, development, or production,” according to court documents.
The health care employees argued that the vaccine mandate would nullify protections for sincere religious beliefs under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, even though the prior state health order in effect just days earlier had afforded the same protections.
“What New York is attempting to do is slam shut an escape hatch from an unconstitutional vaccine mandate,” attorney Christopher Ferrara, Thomas More Society special counsel, said in a statement before the injunction was granted.
“And they are doing this while knowing that many people have sincere religious objections to vaccines that were tested, developed, or produced with cell lines derived from aborted children.” (The Epoch Times)
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According to the order from Hurd, a Clinton appointee, “The vaccine mandate is suspended in operation to the extent that the (state Department of Health) is barred from enforcing any requirement that employers deny religious exemptions from COVID-19 vaccination or that they revoke any exemptions employers already granted before the vaccine mandate issued.”
The state of New York has until Sept. 22 to respond to the lawsuit in federal court.
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