thresholds between what a company requires of it's employees, and what the government does.
Religious Suits Over Covid Shots Reveal Edge for Private Sector
Sept. 21, 2021, 6:08 AM
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/religious-lawsuits-over-covid-shots-reveal-private-public-divide
Companies have broad power to overcome religious objections to Covid-19 vaccine mandates while an early ruling shows potential limitations to government authority to require the shot.
A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order last week blocking the New York State Department of Health from interfering with employers granting religious exemptions to its vaccine mandate. A group of health-care workers brought a constitutional challenge against the state’s mandate, which calls on hospital and nursing home employees to get a first vaccine dose by Sept. 27.
Even though federal anti-bias law requires companies to accommodate workers’ religious objections to vaccine mandates, the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1977 decision in TWA v. Hardison gives them the leeway to deny such exemptions if they would impose more than a trivial burden on their operations.
“Right now, Hardison really is a barrier to protect what could be important private sector policies on vaccines,” said Frank Ravitch, a law professor at Michigan State University who’s written extensively on law and religion. “Employers could always say allowing Covid to spread is an undue burden.”
The interplay between protections for religious vaccine objections in the private and public sectors takes on added importance as the federal government readies a regulation to force large employers to require their workers to get inoculated against Covid-19 or submit to regular testing.
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