Dr. A. v. Hochul
Case Name:
Dr. A. v. Hochul
Case Status: Certiorari Denied
Court: Supreme Court of the United States
Clinic Involvement: Amicus
About the Case:
In August 2021, New York issued a mandate that all healthcare workers receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The mandate included both a religious and a medical exemption. Soon after, however, the religious exemption was stripped from the mandate, while the medical exemption remained. Healthcare workers with religious objections sued seeking an exemption from the state mandate.
The Religious Freedom Clinic filed an amicus brief on behalf of Protect the First Foundation urging the Supreme Court to hear the case. The brief pointed to lower court confusion over how to treat secular exemptions that both promote and harm the government’s stated interest. In this case, the medical exemption promoted the government interest because it protected the health of immunocompromised healthcare workers. But the medical exemption also hindered the government interest because it potentially exposed the public to COVID-19 through unvaccinated medically exempt healthcare workers. As the Clinic’s brief explained, lower courts are divided on whether secular exemptions like the medical exemption in New York’s healthcare worker vaccine mandate trigger heightened scrutiny under the First Amendment.
On June 30, 2022, the Supreme Court denied review, with Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissenting.
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