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The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a petition by New York City educators to review their case alleging the city’s process for evaluating requests for religious exemptions from COVID-19 vaccines was discriminatory.
The court’s decision not to review Kane v. City of New York leaves in place lower-court rulings that largely favored the city.
“This is completely devastating to me and to my community,” said lead plaintiff Michael Kane, a former New York City special education teacher and founder of Teachers For Choice. Kane is now the director of advocacy for Children’s Health Defense, which funded the lawsuit.
Despite the setback, Kane said the plaintiffs are not backing down. “We are regrouping,” he said. “Our end goal is to set a precedent that this can never happen again. You cannot have religious exemptions that are fake and inaccessible.”
Kane’s attorney, Sujata Gibson, said the decision to seek Supreme Court review was difficult but necessary. Gibson initially filed the lawsuit, as Kane v. de Blasio, in 2021 on behalf of nearly a dozen educators whose religious exemption requests were denied.
“We knew from the beginning that petitioning the Supreme Court was a long shot,” Gibson said. “The court grants review in less than 1% of the cases filed each year. But given the blatant religious discrimination our clients faced, it was a battle we had to fight. These educators deserved every possible chance to have their rights vindicated at the highest level.”
Appeals ruling serves as ‘powerful tool’ in fight for others
Gibson emphasized that the Supreme Court’s decision does not end the broader legal fight. She said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruling that preceded the high court appeal produced important precedent that continues to shape ongoing litigation.
“While this specific chapter has closed for some, the legal battle is far from over,” Gibson said. “The 2nd Circuit’s decision in Kane wasn’t a total loss. It established critical precedent by reinstating the First Amendment claims of two plaintiffs, Natasha Solon and Heather Clark.”
She said the appeals court recognized those claims were viable because the city improperly dismissed their beliefs as “too personal” or “idiosyncratic,” sending the cases back to a lower court for further proceedings.
“That ruling is now a powerful tool we are using to fight for others,” Gibson said.
Gibson said the 2nd Circuit decision is already influencing additional lawsuits and proposed class actions.
“We are already seeing the Kane precedent lead to victories in multiple federal district court cases in New York,” she 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.”
‘Had we been in front of a jury, I’m sure we would have won’
Kane said the case was always about more than lost jobs.
“One of the things we’ve done really well is getting people to understand the totality of this picture,” he said. “This is about more than just your job. This is about securing the right to bodily autonomy for everyone. This is about the future of the entire country.”
He said one of the most painful aspects of the litigation was that the case never went to trial.
“The thing that bothers me the most is that we never got to have a trial,” Kane said. “There have been wins across the country for unvaccinated workers, and most have been in jury trials or settlements before trial. We were denied the right to have a jury of our peers. Had we been in front of a jury, I’m sure we would have won.”
Although the Supreme Court declined to hear the federal claims, Gibson said many of the same educators continue to see progress in state court.
“It is heartbreaking that the Supreme Court will not hear the specific claims of the named plaintiffs in Kane who suffered so much,” she said. “However, there is still a path to justice for many of them. The majority of these same educators have already won significant relief in state court under our parallel case, DiCapua v. City of New York.”
She added that while the city has appealed that decision, the plaintiffs are optimistic. “We remain hopeful that the state courts will ultimately uphold their reinstatement and backpay.”
Case hinged on whether government ‘can play denominational favorites’
Kane and his co-plaintiffs sued the city in 2021, shortly after then-Mayor Bill de Blasio announced COVID-19 vaccine mandates for city employees, and New York City began rejecting requests for religious accommodations.
Plaintiffs argued the city’s religious exemption process violated the U.S. Constitution by applying different standards depending on an employee’s faith and whether that faith publicly opposed vaccination.
John Bursch, lead attorney for the educators, previously told The Defender that the case raised the question of “whether the government can play denominational favorites when granting religious exemptions.”
According to Bursch, New York City granted exemptions to Christian Scientists and others affiliated with “recognized” religions that publicly opposed vaccination.
Educators with individual religious objections — or whose faith leaders, such as Pope Francis, publicly supported vaccination — were often required to prove an exemption would not impose an undue hardship. The city “nearly always denied” those exemption requests.
After the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York rejected their claims, the plaintiffs appealed. In November 2024, the 2nd Circuit ruled against most of them, prompting the appeal to the Supreme Court.
The appeals court decision covered three related cases: New Yorkers for Religious Liberty v. City of New York, which included firefighters, police officers, sanitation workers, teachers and other public employees; and Kane v. de Blasio and Keil v. City of New York, both filed by teachers and school administrators.
Related articles in The Defender- Fired New York Workers Who Sued City Over COVID Vaccine Mandates Say New Rehiring Plan Falls Short, Urge Supreme Court to Hear Their Case
- ‘Let Us Work’: Fired New York City Workers Rally in Support of Bill Requiring City to Reinstate Jobs With Back Pay
- New York Workers Denied Religious Exemptions From COVID Vaccine Mandates Weigh Next Steps After Appeals Court Sides With City
- Unvaccinated Teachers, Still Out of Work, File New Lawsuit Against New York City
