By Andrew Chung
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday declined to hear a challenge to New York’s mandate that healthcare sector workers be vaccinated against COVID-19 brought by a group of doctors, nurses and others who objected on religious grounds.
Turning away an appeal by 16 healthcare workers, the justices left in place a lower court ruling that rejected their claim that the mandate violates the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment prohibition against religious discrimination by the government. Most of the workers either resigned from their jobs, lost hospital admitting privileges or were fired for refusing the vaccine.
Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, dissented from the decision to deny the appeal.
(Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham)
