Monday, October 25, 2021

General Religious Objection Available Under Hawaii's COVID Mandate

In Pelekai v. State of Hawai'i, (D HI, Oct. 22, 2021), a Hawaii federal district court rejected various challenges to Hawaii state and county mandates that public employees be vaccinated against COVD or else submit to regular testing. One of plaintiffs' objections was to language rejecting any religious exemption based on opposition to "specific vaccinations". The court rejected that claim, saying in part:

The policy ... does not prohibit an employee from making the following objection: “I object to all vaccines that have been developed using aborted fetal cell lines on religious grounds.” The latter is not an objection to a specific vaccine, is not prohibited by Honolulu’s policy, and is the objection Plaintiffs themselves claim to want to make.