Supreme Court Rejects New York School Workers on Vaccine Mandate

(Bloomberg) -- The full U.S. Supreme Court rejected a group of New York City school workers who were seeking to stop the city from firing them for not getting vaccinated against Covid-19, denying a renewed request by 15 people turned away Feb. 11 by Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

The workers resubmitted their bid with Justice Neil Gorsuch after being rebuffed by Sotomayor, the justice assigned to handle emergency matters from New York. As is the court’s custom, Gorsuch referred the renewed request to the full nine-member court, which then rejected the workers with no comment.

The employees were seeking a religious exemption from the city’s vaccination requirement for its 148,000 teachers and staff. Sotomayor let the city start enforcing its mandate in October.

The city in February fired more than 1,400 unvaccinated workers, most of them Department of Education employees.

The Supreme Court has let state and local governments adopt Covid vaccine requirements even without a religious opt-out. The justices have been more skeptical at the federal level, blocking a Biden administration rule that would have required shots or regular tests for more than 80 million employees while allowing a more targeted vaccine mandate for some health-care workers.

The case is Keil v. City of New York, 21A398.

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