SCOTUS Again Rejects NYC Teachers' Appeal to Block COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate in Public Schools

Public school employees in New York City are facing termination on Monday, February 14, unless they waive their right to continue litigation or drop their objection to receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. As of Friday, almost 3,000 NYC municipal workers (0.8% of a roughly 370,000-person workforce) were eligible for layoffs.

The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has again denied a group of New York City public school teachers appealing to block the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for city employees who were not given a religious exemption.

SCOTUS Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who handles emergency appeals from the area that includes NYC, rejected the request for an emergency injunction on behalf of 15 people facing termination due to their refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

The 15 NYC employees involved include a handful of public school teachers, supervisors, and staff.

According to the teachers' filing, the employees claimed they were suspended without pay for a period of four months, and will be terminated from employment on Monday without the injunction.

Sotomayor did not comment on the matter, nor did she refer the appeal to the full court.

A similar decision was issued by Sotomayor in October, 2021, greenlighting the city's enforcement of its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for some 148,000 public school employees.

According to NBC News, any employees seeking religious exemptions may have had their request denied because a religious official must support the individual's exemption.

The SCOTUS decision comes a month after the high court ruled that the federal vaccine-or-test mandate implemented by US President Joe Biden's administration amounted to "a significant encroachment into the Lives—and health—of a vast number of employees."