The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York on Tuesday morning temporarily blocked Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s order mandating health workers to get the vaccine against COVID.
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A group of health care workers represented by the Thomas More Society sued the state arguing their Constitutional rights were violated when the state’s issued a vaccination mandate barring religious exemptions.
Judge David Hurd issued the order giving the Hochul administration “until Sept. 22 to respond to the lawsuit in federal court in Utica,” ABC News reported. “If the state opposes the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary court order blocking the vaccine mandate, a Sept. 28 oral hearing will occur.”
Now-resigned Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) on August 16 announced that all healthcare workers in the state of New York, including staff at hospitals and long-term care facilities such as nursing homes, adult care facilities, and other congregate care settings, are required to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
The Thomas More Society argued that the mandate “attempts to nullify protections for sincere religious beliefs granted under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, even though days earlier the state of New York had afforded protection for religious beliefs in its prior health order.”
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