An Illinois federal judge overseeing multiple lawsuits tied to United Airlines’ handling of COVID-19 vaccine exemption requests has declined to take on another case, signaling an end to his involvement with new disputes stemming from the airline’s pandemic era policy.
US District Judge Matthew Kennelly said Friday that he would not accept a pilot’s lawsuit recently transferred from Florida, making clear during a brief court hearing that he is finished adding more United COVID-related cases to his docket.
“I’m done taking United COVID cases,” Judge Kennelly said as he rejected United’s request to assign pilot Alvin Reinauer’s lawsuit to him.
The judge explained that Reinauer’s case is simply too new to be consolidated with the remaining case still pending before him. That lawsuit, brought by pilot Joseph Oka, has been litigated for nearly two years and is now at an advanced stage, while Reinauer’s claims have seen minimal discovery and remain in their early phases.
According to Judge Kennelly, the significant gap in timing and procedural posture between the cases weighs against reassignment under local court rules. Those rules allow related cases to be reassigned only when doing so would promote efficiency and help resolve the matters more quickly.
“That’s particularly true given the fact that the cases were basically filed two years apart,” the judge said.
Counsel for Reinauer did not appear at Friday’s hearing and did not immediately respond to requests for comment. United Airlines also did not comment on the ruling.
The lawsuits arise from United’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate, which required employees to be vaccinated or seek an exemption during the pandemic. Employees who requested religious exemptions allege the airline unlawfully placed them on unpaid leave rather than offering reasonable accommodations.
Judge Kennelly has handled several of these disputes since receiving the first such case in 2023. Most have since been dismissed. In one earlier ruling, the judge found that a group of pilots failed to present sufficient evidence that United’s vaccine policy violated federal law or amounted to religious discrimination.
The remaining case on Judge Kennelly’s docket, filed by pilot Joseph Oka, challenges what he describes as a “tyrannical” and “coercive” mandate that forced him to choose between receiving a COVID vaccine against his religious beliefs or losing his income. Oka’s lawsuit has reached the summary judgment stage and is scheduled for trial in April, according to court records.
Judge Kennelly previously accepted another related case in late 2024 after it was transferred from Florida. That lawsuit, brought by former sheet metal technician Nathan Bement, was dismissed roughly three months later. The judge also refused to allow Bement to amend his complaint, concluding it still failed to state a valid claim of religious discrimination.
Reinauer’s lawsuit follows a similar pattern. Filed in Florida in October 2024, it alleges United adopted its vaccine mandate as part of a marketing effort rather than a genuine safety measure and unlawfully denied any meaningful religious accommodations. Reinauer claims employees were given an “impossible choice” between violating their religious beliefs or being placed on unpaid leave.
The case was transferred to Chicago in November after a Florida judge agreed it belonged in Illinois, where United is headquartered. United later asked that the case be reassigned to Judge Kennelly, arguing it raised the same legal issues as the other COVID-related lawsuits he had overseen.
Judge Kennelly rejected that request, emphasizing that reassignment would not serve judicial efficiency given the advanced posture of the remaining case and his unwillingness to expand his docket further.
The ruling effectively leaves Reinauer’s lawsuit to proceed separately, without being folded into the cluster of United COVID cases that Judge Kennelly has spent years addressing.
