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Religious vaccine exemption stays for NY health care workers

FILE - In this March 2, 2021, file photo, Hollie Maloney, a pharmacy technician, loads a syringe with Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine at the Portland Expo in Portland, Maine. The Biden administration’s embattled plan to dispense COVID-19 booster shots to most Americans faced its first key hurdle Friday, Sept. 17, as a government advisory panel met to decide whether to recommend extra doses of the Pfizer vaccine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

UTICA, N.Y. (AP) — A federal judge ruled Tuesday that New York must continue to allow health care workers to seek exemptions from a statewide vaccine mandate on religious grounds as a lawsuit challenging the requirement proceeds.

Judge David Hurd in Utica had issued a temporary restraining order a month ago after 17 doctors, nurses and other health professionals claimed in a lawsuit that their rights would be violated with a vaccine mandate that disallowed the exemptions.

Hurd’s preliminary injunction Tuesday means New York will continue to be barred from enforcing any requirement that employers deny religious exemptions.

Hurd wrote that the health care workers challenging suing the state were likely to succeed on the merits of their constitutional claim.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration began requiring workers at hospitals and nursing homes to be vaccinated on Sept. 27 and more recently expanded the requirement to include workers at assisted living homes, hospice care, treatment centers and home health aides.

An email was sent to the Hochul administration seeking comment.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press.

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