19 New York school teachers go to Supreme Court to sue for RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION after state denied vaccine exemptions
By sdwells // 2025-07-24
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Nineteen New York City teachers who were fired after being denied religious exemptions from the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate are appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming their constitutional rights were violated. The teachers allege that the city applied religious exemption rules inconsistently and discriminated against those with personal religious beliefs that differed from their organized religion’s official stance on vaccination.
  • Nineteen New York teachers are petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming their religious exemption requests from the COVID-19 vaccine mandate were unconstitutionally denied while others were approved based on favored religious affiliations.
  • The teachers argue that the city discriminated by denying exemptions based on personal beliefs while granting them to individuals whose religious leaders had not endorsed vaccination, violating First Amendment protections and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
  • Lower courts, including the 2nd Circuit, ruled against the teachers, using a more lenient “rational basis” review, but the petition claims this conflicts with other federal court rulings that apply stricter scrutiny in religious accommodation cases.
  • Despite the vaccine mandate being rescinded in 2023, the teachers have not been rehired, and they say Mayor Eric Adams could end the dispute by reinstating them, while the Supreme Court is being asked to resolve inconsistent rulings across federal circuits.

New York teachers fired for refusing COVID vaccines take case to U.S. Supreme Court

The case, supported by Children’s Health Defense, consolidates two earlier lawsuits—Kane v. de Blasio and Keil v. City of New York—and targets the New York City Department of Education, former Mayor Bill de Blasio, current Mayor Eric Adams, and city health officials. The teachers argue that the city’s vaccine policy violated their First Amendment rights and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by selectively approving religious exemptions only for individuals whose religions were publicly against vaccines. Lead plaintiff Michael Kane, founder of Teachers for Choice, described the policy as “egregious,” asserting that it discriminated against sincerely held religious beliefs simply because they were not endorsed by institutional religious leaders. Kane emphasized that many of the fired teachers remain unemployed or underemployed, earning significantly less than before. Though Mayor Adams rescinded the vaccine mandate in February 2023, the city has not reinstated the terminated teachers, a decision Kane says is unjust and politically motivated. He accused the Second Circuit Court of delaying its decision—issued in November 2024, nearly two years after arguments were heard—as a stalling tactic. The teachers’ Supreme Court petition contends that the Second Circuit’s ruling contradicts decisions from three other federal appellate courts regarding how religious exemptions should be treated under the Constitution. At the center of the argument is whether strict scrutiny—the highest level of judicial review—should apply when evaluating religious accommodations to vaccine mandates. The Second Circuit used the more lenient rational basis review, which assumes government policies are constitutional unless clearly proven otherwise. The petition further claims that even after a 2021 arbitrator ruled New York City had violated Title VII, the city continued to reject exemption requests using subjective judgments like whether a belief was “too personal” or if accommodating it would impose an “undue hardship.” However, those who did receive exemptions were not required to prove they posed no burden to the city. In recent years, the Supreme Court has declined to hear several religious exemption cases related to COVID-19 vaccination, including lawsuits brought by Maine healthcare workers and Connecticut parents. Kane argues this case is different because it concerns adult workers and addresses conflicting appellate rulings, which may compel the high court to intervene. Kane also insists that Mayor Adams could resolve the issue unilaterally by rehiring the teachers. “Adams has the power to end this right now,” he wrote on Substack, accusing the mayor of continuing to block unvaccinated workers from returning despite the lifted mandate. The Supreme Court has not yet announced whether it will hear the case, which could have significant implications for religious liberty and vaccine mandate policies nationwide. Bookmark plague.info to your favorite independent websites for updates on TWO HUNDRED new gain-of-function viruses NIH, CDC and WHO plan to release into the “wild” so Big Pharma can force inject billions more people with deadly mRNA spike prions during the next plandemic. Sources for this article include: ChildrensHealthDefense.org CommunityM.com TeachersForChoice.Substack.com
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