In Mora v. New York State Unified Court System, (2nd Circuit, March 30, 2026), the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a suit brought by a Poughkeepsie, New York, City Court Judge who in 2021 was denied a religious exemption from the New York courts' Covid vaccine mandate. This led to his being excluded from the city courthouse where he usually presided. Each of his five causes of action was dismissed on a different ground. His claim against the court system was dismissed on 11th Amendment and mootness grounds. His Title VII claim was dismissed because of the exclusion in Title VII for policymaking appointees of elected officials.
Plaintiff's Equal Protection claim against members of the Vaccine Exemption Committee was dismissed because the Committee routinely granted religious exemptions to other Catholics and people of different faiths who opposed the COVID vaccines. So Mora's religion does not seem to be the basis for the denial, and Mora did not allege facts suggesting some other discriminatory motive.
Denying Mora's Free Exercise claim, the Court said in part:
Mora’s own pleadings reflect that more than 500 other judges and employees – including Catholics with beliefs identical to Mora’s – received exemptions from the vaccine mandate.... Those allegations belie Mora’s assertion that the Individual Defendants’ denial of his exemption request was based on hostility to his religious beliefs, as opposed to his failure to follow the procedures established for religious exemptions.
Finally, the Court rejected Mora's retaliation claim, saying in part:
Mora contends that the chief administrative judge, Lawrence Marks, retaliated against him on the basis of his “religiously based refusal to vaccinate,” ... when he referred Mora to a disciplinary body.... [T]he disciplinary referral was made only after (1) Mora failed to follow the procedures required to obtain a vaccine exemption,.. and after (2) he refused to comply with the then operative vaccine mandate following the denial of his request for a religious exemption....
