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A federal appeals court today heard arguments in a case brought by a college football coach who alleges he was illegally fired over his request for a religious exemption from the state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Nick Rolovich, former head coach of the Washington State University (WSU) Cougars and a Catholic, requested a religious exemption according to university protocol.
Even though the university’s blind review committee found Rolovich’s religious beliefs to be sincere, senior university officials vetoed the committee’s decision and fired him.
“Washington State officials conspired to oust Coach Rolovich during a winning season because they disliked his religious beliefs,” Luke Goodrich, senior counsel at Becket and an attorney for Rolovich, told The Defender. “That sort of religious targeting is an affront to the spirit of college athletics, religious freedom and common decency.”
In August 2022, Rolovich filed a tort claim seeking $25 million for wrongful termination. Later that year, he sued WSU and its leaders.
In early 2025, a federal judge ruled that WSU was justified in firing Rolovich for refusing to comply with the state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. In June 2025, Rolovich appealed.
Rolovich is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to reverse the lower court’s decision so the case can go to trial. According to Goodrich, the 9th Circuit now has an opportunity to make it clear that public employers don’t get to trample religious freedom.
“This case matters not just for Coach Rolovich, but for every American who wants to live out his faith at work,” Goodrich said.
DOJ sides with Rolovich
The case drew the attention of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), which filed an amicus brief in support of Rolovich.
An amicus brief is filed by non-parties in a lawsuit to provide relevant information intended to help the court reach a decision. It comes from the Latin words amici curiae, which means “friend of the court.”
At today’s hearing, Kelsey McGee, an attorney for the U.S. government, said the government became involved in Rolovich’s case “to enforce Title VII against state and local governments.”
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.
The lower court found that Rolovich couldn’t bring a Title VII claim because the “record does not support [his] claim of religious objection to the vaccination.”
The DOJ disagreed, citing ample evidence of Rolovich’s sincere religious objection to the COVID-19 shot.
University leaders furious football coach wouldn’t get COVID shot
WSU hired Rolovich in January 2020.
On Dec, 6, 2021, WSU terminated his five-year contract, after only two seasons.
Rolovich’s contract allowed the university to fire him “without cause” — but if it did so, it had to pay “liquidated damages” equal to 60% of his remaining salary for the contract term, the appeal said.
Rolovich, who received the highest public salary in the state at $3.2 million per year, alleges WSU fired him without paying him liquidated damages.
Rolovich also alleges that university leadership constructed a plan to oust him because they feared his choice not to get vaccinated would hurt WSU’s “brand” by drawing negative media attention and displeasing donors.
The case largely revolves around whether Rolovich objected to the COVID-19 vaccine on religious or secular grounds.
After Washington’s governor in June 2021 required universities to mandate the vaccine for students, staff and faculty, Rolovich applied for a personal exemption.
At that time, he avoided publicly discussing his religious objections to the vaccines, out of a belief that religion is “very personal, private, and intimate for each person,” the appeal said.
When WSU leaders, including former WSU President Kirk Schulz, learned Rolovich had applied for a personal exemption, they worked closely with Washington’s governor to have him issue a new COVID-19 mandate that allowed only for medical or religious exemptions.
“The idea, according to President Schulz, was that ‘once the personal exemption was lifted … Coach Rolovich would agree to the vaccine,’” the appeal said.
However, Rolovich, who was raised Catholic, reconnected with his faith during the pandemic.
The case record includes 54 exhibits attesting to his religious objections to the COVID-19 vaccine, including communications with a priest and bishop about his concern about taking a product developed using aborted fetal cell lines.
When Rolovich told school officials he planned to seek a religious exemption, they “responded with fury,” the appeal said. WSU Athletic Director Patrick Chun denigrated Rolovich’s beliefs, comparing them to those of “cults.”
WSU Chair Marty Dickinson said it was “time to take the reigns [sic] and … no longer protect Nick who has tarnished WSU’s brand.”
Although the university’s blind review committee, which reviewed Rolovich’s exemption request, determined his religious objections were sincere, school officials overrode the determination and decided to fire him.
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NIH director wrote report on Rolovich’s behalf
In an appeal to Schulz, Rolovich gave Schulz a report prepared by Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a former professor of medicine and health policy at Stanford Medical School, and now director of the National Institutes of Health.
The report outlined why it was not a public health threat for WSU to accommodate Rolovich’s exemption request, including that the median infection survival rate for COVID-19 was 99.7%, that vaccinated individuals were at least as likely as unvaccinated individuals to shed live virus and that asymptomatic spread of COVID-19 was rare.
Bhattacharya concluded there was “no good public health case” for WSU to terminate employees who have a sincere medical or religious objection to the COVID-19 vaccine.
Still, Schulz denied Rolovich’s appeal.
WSU also claimed that accommodating Rolovich’s exemption request would have caused the university undue hardship.
However, Rolovich’s attorneys noted that WSU approved 97% of the religious exemption requests it received. There was no reason to think the university could not have also approved Rolovich’s request, they said.
WSU did not immediately respond to our comment request.
Related article in The Defender
- Former College Football Coach Fired for Refusing COVID Vaccine Files $25 Million Claim Against Washington State
- Woman Fired for Refusing COVID Vaccine Wins Big in Tennessee, but Supreme Court Deals Blow to Health Freedom Advocates in Connecticut
