In In re Moscatelli v. New York City Police Department, (NY Cnty. Sup. Ct., Dec. 22, 2022), a New York trial court annulled an administrative determination that denied a New York City Detective a religious exemption from the city's COVID vaccine mandate. The court held that the administrative determination was arbitrary and capricious, saying that "the NYPD EEOD’s determination is a prime example of a determination that sets forth only the most perfunctory discussion of reasons for administrative action." The court went on, however, to say:
The court’s conclusion in this regard should not be construed as a ruling that, had the petitioner’s stated reasons for his request for an exemption, and his discussion of religious doctrine, properly been analyzed and explained by the Panel or the NYPD EEOD in the challenged decisions, those contentions would have constituted a proper basis for an exemption. That would have required a forthright engagement by those agencies with the religious contentions and arguments raised by the petitioner.... It would also have required some actual inquiry ... into the petitioner’s prior behavior concerning vaccines and medications. Had those agencies taken that approach, their determinations might have survived judicial scrutiny, as the petitioner provided scanty proof that the rejection of vaccinations or medications that have been developed, improved, or tested using fetal stem cells is an accepted tenet of Catholic doctrine, as opposed to a personal interpretation of doctrine by a lay person or even a few members of the clergy....
[T]he petitioner ... has not demonstrated that his conclusions about sin, the use of embryonic stem cells in the development and improvement of various vaccinations and medications, and the alleged proscription of desecrating the human body via any genetic manipulation that mRNA vaccinations might generate, are established Catholic doctrine, or merely his personal interpretation of his obligations as a practicing Catholic.... Nor has he demonstrated that he had previously declined to be treated with [other] drugs ... which were either developed, improved, or recently tested by their manufacturers for adverse side effects using stem cells from aborted fetuses.
