Login
First They Came for the Teachers: Legal Battle Over COVID Vaccine Religious Exemptions Continues
Teachers who sued the City of New York over its religious exemption policies for COVID-19 vaccines vow to fight on, even after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear their case.
In war, it is often those who stand on the frontlines who are sacrificed first.
There are times when a cause is so important, so just, that it calls the finest among us to stand out in front at any cost.
This was the case for Teachers for Choice, Educators for Freedom and all of the plaintiffs in Kane v. de Blasio and Keil v. City of New York (consolidated into Kane v. City of New York).
More than two dozen of us were called to be the first to step up and fight against the tyranny of New York City’s (NYC) vaccine mandate for teachers and educators, which was the first of many mandates issued for city workers.
Sadly, this week our legal battle ended, and we lost. The U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) denied our attorneys’ request for a writ of certiorari to be argued in the high court. That means the federal claims for the majority of the plaintiffs in this case are now — unjustly — over (petition of certiorari denied, see page 3).
That’s the bad news.
The good news is that this does not end the claims for all unvaccinated educators or city workers. There are multiple lawsuits that continue forward.
After Christmas, we will hold a Zoom call with attorney Sujata Gibson for fired unvaccinated workers to get updated on where the legal landscape is currently and where it is headed (date to be announced soon).
The Kane case was actually successful for two of our plaintiffs (though not the majority), and our attorney Sujata Gibson says this precedent is currently helping other cases succeed in federal court.
As reported by The Defender:
“‘We are already seeing the Kane precedent lead to victories in multiple federal district court cases in New York,’ [Gibson] said. ‘We also have proposed class action lawsuits currently in motion with far more developed factual records that stand on the shoulders of the work done in this case.”
4-year battle
While the majority of Kane & Keil plaintiffs (including myself) have been unjustly denied by the federal court system, I will never forget the years of battle that we engaged in, especially at Foley Square in front of the Thurgood Marshall Courthouse in downtown Manhattan, where so much of this played out.
Before there were any lawsuits — before anyone lost their job or was fired — there were the rallies! In August of 2021, we rallied in front of City Hall against the newly announced COVID-19 vaccine mandate only for teachers and educators. Three thousand of us showed up strong.
Then on Sept. 13, 2021, at Foley Square, Teachers for Choice held the historic “NYC Walk Out” with NY Freedom Rally, Children’s Health Defense and many other grassroots organizations. We held this rally in the face of the deadline teachers and educators were facing to get vaccinated or lose our jobs.
Thousands of us rallied at Foley Square and marched over the Brooklyn Bridge that evening. It was covered extensively by local and national news. This was before thousands of us were fired from our jobs, and I had no idea at that time I was rallying in front of the very courthouse I would visit, enter, rally and pray in front of repeatedly for the next four years.
Kane v. de Blasio was filed in late September of 2021 when unvaccinated educators were forced to leave without pay. Mary Holland had connected me with attorney Sujata Gibson, who started the entire case. Teachers for Choice was the platform that helped to find and recruit plaintiffs, and we began the process with nearly a dozen of us.
We went to the courthouse at Foley Square for the first time, asking for a temporary restraining order to get us back into our jobs immediately in late September, but that was denied. We had hope at that time because the judge we were first assigned was a Trump appointee, but that was irrelevant in September of 2021. The fear campaign was powerful, especially in New York.
On Oct. 4, 2021, I appeared on Laura Ingraham’s show to discuss the Kane case along with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who had written a scientific affidavit filed with our case. Today, Dr. Bhattacharya is the director of the National Institutes of Health.
On Oct. 12, 2021, we were back praying in Foley Square as Sujata argued for a preliminary injunction in front of Judge Valerie Caproni. Activists rallied in support of us outside the courthouse, led by Joe Speaks Truth, while we were inside. Very few people were allowed in the courtroom due to COVID-19 restrictions. Caproni ruled against us that day from the bench.
We then appealed to the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for a preliminary injunction that had a hearing in November of 2021, and we had a critical victory!
A panel of three judges ruled that the arbitration award that the NYC Department of Education used to deny our religious exemptions was “constitutionally suspect” because it favored some faiths over others, so NYC had to give a fresh review of our religious exemptions.
Sujata Gibson argued this alongside Barry Black for that win. The law firm Nelson Madden Black was representing Educators for Freedom. The picture at the top of this report is from outside of that hearing on that date. Hundreds of us prayed in Foley Square for a wise decision while we live-streamed the hearing and played the proceedings through speakers set up in Foley Square.
So after we were granted this narrow relief, the case then went back to Caproni in the lower court, and NYC was given another chance to approve our religious exemptions. We all reapplied, and NYC denied all of us, again, except for one of our plaintiffs, who did return to his job. Judge Caproni saw no problem with any of this.
However, about nine months later, Judge Caproni had to recuse herself from our cases in disgrace when our attorneys asked her to do so because she owned hundreds of thousands of dollars in Big Pharma stock.
We were then assigned two justices who both had the same major Big Pharma conflicts of interest. First was Judge Edgardo Ramos, who immediately recused himself when our attorneys requested he do so. Second was Judge Naomi Buchwald, who owned nearly $1 million in conflicted stock, but she did not recuse herself.
Buchwald refused to do so when asked. Instead, she ultimately dismissed our case with prejudice (a very important and terminal fact) in horrifying fashion.
This pattern of Big Pharma stock ownership was so corrupt that even The New York Times had to cover the conflict of interest. Ultimately, it was this horrendous ruling from a completely conflicted judge who owns nearly $1 million in Big Pharma stock that stays in effect still today.
Buchwald dismissing our case forced us to appeal to the 2nd Circuit (for the second time). We didn’t get our day back in court until Feb. 8, 2023.
Interestingly, it was the day before this that NYC ended the COVID-19 vaccine mandate across the entire city. NYC’s attorneys actually came into the courtroom and argued our case was moot because the vaccine mandate no longer existed.
… you just can’t make this stuff up.
***So it was the Kane case that was responsible for ending NYC’s vaccine mandate***
Much time had passed when we finally arrived back at the Thurgood Marshall Courthouse, praying in Foley Square, yet again. The legendary attorney John Bursch of Alliance Defending Freedom was now the lead attorney on our case (along with our long-held counsels). Bursch argued flawlessly as to why Judge Buchwald’s decision in the lower court was unconstitutional.
In open court, Bursch disclosed that “problem codes” had been placed on unvaccinated NYC educators that served as a scarlet letter preventing us from getting employment in multiple settings.
The issue of problem codes was very unique and only happened to teachers and educators in NYC. It was a cruel form of punishment that prevented educators from finding work even outside of NYC.
After this argument, the 2nd Circuit sat on our case for nearly two years!
We waited 20 months for a decision from the 2nd Circuit, which is in itself a travesty of justice. This was a preliminary injunction motion, which is supposed to be expedited, not stalled.
After that ridiculously long wait, the court ruled against us on Nov. 13, 2024. This was right after President Donald Trump won the election and one day before he officially announced that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would be nominated to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
KANE Federal Lawsuit Denied Injunctive Relief in 2nd Circuit
The federal cases for unvaccinated NYC workers – Kane v. de Blasio, Keil v. NYC and New Yorkers for Religious Liberty v. NYC – have finally been ruled on in the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.
In ruling against us, the 2nd Circuit did something deviously masterful. They granted relief to two of the plaintiffs in the case (as mentioned at the top of this report) and dismissed nearly two dozen others.
They also stated that evidence of religious animus for those dismissed was not presented, but that was a blatant lie. There were over 100 pages of extensive evidence documenting religious animus towards all our plaintiffs. But in issuing this decision in this way, it made it very easy for SCOTUS to deny hearing our case.
SCOTUS is not inclined to take cases to argue factual accuracy or lies, but rather to ensure bad law has not been created. In offering relief to two plaintiffs but falsely claiming the rest of us had no evidence we deserved that relief, it could be argued that the 2nd Circuit was not “making bad law” in this decision. Clever.
Our last stop for our case was ultimately SCOTUS, and on Dec. 15, we were denied by the high court. That denial ended our case entirely.
Un-American
What was so un-American and unconstitutional in this entire process was that the courts completely denied us our right to a trial by jury.
Throughout the nation, for the past two years, we have seen multi-million dollar awards going to multiple unvaccinated workers denied religious exemptions. But here in NYC, they denied teachers and educators our constitutional right to a trial in front of our peers, and they did so in a remarkably underhanded way.
Our attorneys were arguing for a preliminary injunction, which is an expedited process before you go to trial, not instead of going to trial. But what the New York courts did was dismiss our claims “early in the process” when we clearly had grounds to go to trial, but they did so while they dragged the “early process” out for over four years.
Again, very clever.
I am heartbroken by this loss, but it will not stop me or slow down my efforts. This case is not the only one seeking justice for fired unvaccinated workers in NYC; there are more in the courts that now have much more evidence available to prove how discriminatory and biased NYC was to unvaccinated workers of faith.
Don’t stop!
Everyone, please keep the prayers going. Prayer works! It just doesn’t always work precisely how our human minds desire it to. And don’t stop fighting!
COVID-19 has changed the landscape for religious and medical freedom in ways I could have hardly imagined — for the better! Now is not the time to be disheartened.
When we take a loss, we dust ourselves off and keep moving forward.
I am lucky that my life is fairly stable today. My retirement has been destroyed, but besides that, I have been very blessed. Many of the Kane plaintiffs are in far worse situations. Loss of jobs, income, homes, partners and marriages has been devastating. Please pray for the health and well-being of all unvaccinated workers who lost their jobs.
Thank you to everyone who has helped and supported these efforts for the past four years. There is so much more to say, and to reference, and to remember, and so many to thank. We helped to build an entire movement as we fought in the courts, and that can never be taken away from any of us.
The Kane & Keil plaintiffs have taken on major sacrifice for something greater than us, at the frontlines of a battle for freedom. Brown v. The Board of Education was a case that was 20 years in the making, with many painful losses that came before it.
Those losses built the foundation for that historic SCOTUS victory that ended educational segregation in our country. I believe the Kane & Keil plaintiffs are playing a foundational role in ending the horrifying discrimination against the unvaccinated and people of faith in our nation.
Keep the faith, and keep fighting.
Originally published on Michael Kane’s Teachers for Choice Substack page.
