NJ Admin Court Honors Non-Religious Vaccine Exemption Against Private Employer

This decision is important because it extends the vaccine religious exemption beyond strictly religious conscientious objection to include “secular” objections to mandated vaccinations. This is similar to the process that occurred during the Viet Nam War Draft, where religious CO status was extended to any person, even the non-religious, who objected to serving involuntarily. RF

Employee Had First Amendment Right To Refuse Flu Shot, N.J. Court Rules

by Mary Pat Gallagher
New Jersey Law Journal
June 5, 2014

http://www.njlawjournal.com/printerfriendly/id=1202658132905

“Denying unemployment benefits to a nurse fired for refusing a flu vaccine for
secular reasons violated her First Amendment right to freedom of expression,
where hospital policy allowed employees to skip the shot on religious grounds, a
N.J. appeals court held on Thursday in a precedential case.

The court reversed the state Department of Labor’s Board of Review, which had
found that the vaccination policy of June Valent’s former employer, Hackettstown
Community Hospital, was reasonable and that her refusal to comply with it
amounted to “simple misconduct” connected to her job that justified
disqualifying her from unemployment benefits.

‘The Board’s decision upholding appellant’s termination unconstitutionally
discriminated against her freedom of expression by improperly endorsing the
employer’s religion-based exemption to the flu vaccination policy and rejecting
the secular choice proffered by appellant,’ the Appellate Division said in
Valent v. Board of Review.”

The Court further stated:

“The religion-based exemption irrefutably illustrates that the flu vaccination
policy is not based exclusively on public health concerns because an employee
claiming an exemption is only required to sign a form attesting to his or her
faith-based reason for refusing to be vaccinated, accompanied with an
appropriate note from a religious leader,” Fuentes wrote for the panel.

“These requirements are facially unrelated to public health issues, patient
safety concerns, or scientifically valid reasons for the containment of the flu
virus,” he said, adding that the religion exemption “merely discriminates
against an employee’s right to refuse to be vaccinated based only on purely
secular reasons.”

My thanks to Gary Krasner http://www.cfic.us/ for this information.