In Federoff v. Geisinger Clinic, (MD PA, No. 23, 2021), a Pennsylvania federal district court refused to issue a preliminary injunction in a suit by 100 clinic employees who had been granted religious exemptions from the COVID vaccine mandate so long as they submit to tests twice per week. The employees sue seeking to eliminate the testing requirement or, alternatively, to require vaccinated employees as well to submit to testing. The court, in rejecting plaintiffs' constitutional and statutory claims, said in part:
First, they assert constitutional claims against a private entity without so much as a paragraph describing how Geisinger could be considered a state actor....
Second, while the Geisinger Employees are in the right area code in alleging that Geisinger violated their rights under federal and state antidiscrimination law ... their allegations fail to touch on these statutes’ most basic requirements. To make out a prima facie case of religious discrimination, the Geisinger Employees must tell the Court what their religious belief is. They have not done so....
[Also] the antidiscrimination statutes require that employees first file their complaint with either the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The Geisinger Employees have not done so.....
[T]he Employees also fail to show that they would suffer irreparable harm...
