A New York court on Wednesday, September 6, ordered the reinstatement with back pay of 10 workers who had been terminated by the city's Department of Education for rejecting the COVID-19 vaccination.
Unconstitutional and Unreasonable?
Anti-vaccine mandate advocates scored a huge win when State Supreme Court Judge Ralph J. Porzio ruled that the city's refusal to provide religious accommodations to certain workers was unconstitutional and unreasonable, as reported by Fox News.
The case, DiCapua v. City of New York, involved school administrators and teachers who sued the city after authorities denied their request for an exemption from the vaccination requirement on religious grounds.
From October 1, 2021, until February 10, 2023, all employees in the New York City Department of Education were required to prove that they had received the necessary vaccinations. To put it simply, the policy resulted in the dismissal of thousands of educators who had refused to implement the mandated changes.
Plaintiffs' attorney Sujata Gibson hailed the decision as a "watershed moment in the teachers' two-year fight for relief," as reported by Children's Health Defense, an organization established by vaccination skeptic and Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
In addition to helping these ten teachers, Gibson argues that the Court's decision establishes a crucial precedent for other educators who have been refused a religious accommodation.
Porzio's decision to side with the terminated teachers did not apply to petitioners who had not originally requested religious accommodation under the city's vaccination requirement, which a federal court had ruled illegal in 2021.
The court also denied the plaintiff's request for class certification, finding that the proposed class was overbroad.
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Significant Legal Precedent
Although the judge's decision fell short of what Gibson and his team had hoped for, it still created a significant legal precedent. Even though the court denied class certification, thousands of educators who have been severely impacted by the vaccination mandate still have a chance of getting some kind of compensation in the future.
Gibson added, "We intend to file a motion of reconsideration on a narrower basis. Rather than waste public resources clogging the courts with so many individual lawsuits, legal action that will remedy these discriminatory policies for all impacted workers only makes sense."
New York educator Michael Kane, who was fired after rejecting the COVID-19 vaccination, described the judgment as "bittersweet." He stated, "While it's an important step in the right direction, justice for only 10 of us doesn't even scratch the surface of the injustice suffered by NYC workers as a result of this illegal mandate."
