In Dr. A v. Hochul, (Sup. Ct., Dec. 13, 2021), the U.S. Supreme Court today by a vote of 6-3, refused to enjoin enforcement of New York's COVID vaccine mandate which has no religious exemptions. This is a companion case to We The Patriots USA v. Hochul which reached a similar result with no Justices filing opinions to accompany the Court's order. (See prior posting.) In Dr. A, Justice Gorsuch filed a 14-page dissent, joined by Justice Alito. The opinion reads in part:
Under the Free Exercise Clause, government “cannot act in a manner that passes judgment upon or presupposes the illegitimacy of religious beliefs and practices.” ... As a result, we have said that government actions burdening religious practice should be “set aside” if there is even “slight suspicion” that those actions “stem from animosity to religion or distrust of its practices.”...
New York’s mandate is such an action. The State began with a plan to exempt religious objectors from its vaccine mandate and only later changed course. Its regulatory impact statement offered no explanation for the about-face. At the same time, a new Governor whose assumption of office coincided with the change in policy admitted that the revised mandate “left off ” a religious exemption “intentionally.” The Governor offered an extraordinary explanation for the change too. She said that “God wants” people to be vaccinated—and that those who disagree are not listening to “organized religion” or “everybody from the Pope on down.”
Justice Thomas dissented without an opinion. National Law Journal has more on the decision.
