The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday signaled renewed interest in a long-running legal clash over New York’s pandemic-era vaccine requirements for healthcare employees, asking the Biden administration to weigh in on a challenge led by former religious workers who say the state pushed them out of their livelihoods.
High Court Signals Fresh Scrutiny
The justices requested a brief from U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer, inviting the federal government to address whether employers can refuse religious accommodation requests on the grounds that granting them might violate state law. The move injects new energy into a dispute the Court has quietly revisited in conference for months, treating it much like a storm cloud that refuses to drift away.
The petition, filed in March, stems from a coalition of ex-healthcare employees who say New York forced hospitals and healthcare facilities to impose COVID-19 vaccination requirements that collided with their deeply held religious beliefs.
Fired Workers Challenge NY’s Vax Mandate
At the center of Does 1–2 v. Hochul lies a once-controversial New York regulation—now repealed—that required healthcare providers to ensure vaccination among staff who could potentially expose patients or coworkers to COVID-19.
Though the rule allowed medical exemptions and offered limited pathways for religious accommodations, it explicitly barred full religious exemptions. To the workers, that made compliance impossible. To keep their faith, they say, they had to lose their jobs.
The group sued New York and several healthcare employers in 2021, arguing that Title VII obligates companies to accommodate sincerely held religious beliefs unless doing so would pose an “undue hardship.”
