New York City Educators' COVID Mandate Falters On Religious Exemption Procedures

Religion Clause ^ | 11/30/21 | Howard Friedman

[marshmallow]

In Kane v. De Blasio, (2d Cir., Nov. 28, 2021), the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals held that New York City's COVID vaccine mandate for school teachers and administrators is not facially unconstitutional under the 1st Amendment because it is a neutral law of general applicability. However the court held that the process-- determined by an arbitrator-- for deciding whether a person is entitled to a religious exemption is unconstitutional:

The Accommodation Standards allowed employees to request a religious accommodation by submitting a request that is “documented in writing by a religious official (e.g., clergy).”... Requests “shall be denied where the leader of the religious organization has spoken publicly in favor of the vaccine, where the documentation is readily available (e.g., from an online source), or where the objection is personal, political, or philosophical in nature.”...

Denying an individual a religious accommodation based on someone else’s publicly expressed religious views — even the leader of her faith —runs afoul of the Supreme Court’s teaching that “[i]t is not within the judicial ken to question the centrality of particular beliefs or practices to a faith, or the validity of particular litigants' interpretations of those creeds.”

[nascarnation]

Identify as black.

Send 20 bucks to Calypso Louie for a membership card.

You're good to skate.

[P-Marlowe]

I informed my employer that I had a religious “objection” to the jab. I did not and will no request an “exemption”. I refuse to state any specific reason for my objection other than that it is religious.

If I request an “exemption” then I am telling them they have a right to deny it.