| NYC Teachers
Fail To Stop COVID Vaccine Mandate While
Religious Exemption Noted
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
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SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Oct 5 –
New York City public school
teachers, facing suspension
without pay if they do not get
the COVID-19 vaccine, sought a
Temporary Restraining Order
against the mandate.
They
lost.
On October
5 U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil held a
hearing. Inner City Press
covered it.
Judge
Vyskocil questioned why the
teachers had waited until
after the mandate was in
effect before seeking a
restraining order; she noted
they had yet to serve the
defendants, including NYC
Health Commissioner David
Chokshi.
While
acknowledging that the
religious exemption belatedly
added by an arbitrator might
raise Constitution issues,
Judge Vyskocil denied the TRO.
She noted other similar cases
pending before the Second
Circuit Court of Appeals.
The
religious exemption, the
plaintiffs' TRO memo says, is
"blatantly discriminatory" in
that "requests must be
'documented in writing' by
a religious official
(i.e. clergy) and 'shall be
denied where the leader of the
religious organization has
spoken public in favor of the
vaccine, or where the
documentation is readily
available (e.g., from an
online source), or where the
objection is personal,
political or philosophical in
nature."
This comes as at
least one pastor has offered
to sign exemption letters if a
person will come to and
presumably contribute to his
church. Still, the language
seems to invite challenge.
Judge Vyskocil questioned
whether it could be considered
a government act, since it was
a private agreement before an
arbitrator.
This case will
have a status conference
before SDNY Judge Caproni on
October 12 at 11 am.
The case is Kane
et al. v. de Blasio et al.,
21-cv-7863 (Caproni)
***
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