by Michael Kane
2-25-21
On February 24, 2022, our cases against the NYC DOE regarding the religious exemption to vaccination for educators were argued in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. You can hear the oral argument at the following link:
This is a complex situation so I will do my best to explain.
Our case has just (barely) made it into consideration by the highest court in the country, the Supreme Court of the United States of America. The first week in March when SCOTUS meets they should be considering IF they will hear our case on an emergency appeal basis.
At the same time, our case is still in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Attorneys Sujata Gibson and Barry Black argued brilliantly, yet again, on behalf of NYC Educators who have recently been fired for declining covid vaccination. I was fired on February 18, 2022.
We will have more updates as they come.
Teachers For Choice 
Thank you for the update and all that you do! Let us all keep praying they do the right thing! I too just got the denial of my appeal from the citywide panel on the basis of “ DOE has demonstrated that it would be an undue hardship to grant this accommodation to appellant given the need for a safe environment for in-person learning.”… Firing is on its way next! Thank you Michael, and the attorneys! Praying for all of us and God Bless you!
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I didn’t get an answer to my appeal yet. Still waiting. I am sending kind wishes to you all.
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I am in the same boat as you. Still waiting. Never experienced such blatant contempt as this. All the best to all of us.
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Do our lawyers know that some teachers, including my husband, were denied the RE based on that if the DOE had granted it, it would present the DOE with “undue hardship”? My husband’s RE-rejection letter, therefore did not even address the merits of his RE request!
He was also not given any opportunity to go to answer questions in front of a panel, like many city employees were given.
The DOE’s answer was, therefore, a non-answer since it didn’t address the content of his request and it was merely kvetching on the DOE’s part, as if the DOE’s “hardship” is supposed to be the teacher’s problem! (The reply he got was merely the DOE saying “No: oh, it’s so hard for us that you are a religious person!”)
When the DOE ended the PCR-testing-out option, the DOE agreed to consider and respond to RE requests BASED ON THEIR MERITS, not to deny them for reasons having nothing to do with the merits of the exemption request!
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Yes our attorneys are very aware of this and arguing extremely effectively on this basis
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Yay!!! TY for replying so promptly!
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