The US Supreme Court refused to consider requiring that government-imposed Covid-19 vaccine mandates include religious exemptions, turning away an appeal by a group of Maine health-care workers.
The justices left intact a federal appeals court decision letting Maine fully enforce its shot requirement for workers in licensed health-care facilities. Maine is one of three states, along with New York and Rhode Island, that require vaccination of health-care workers and allow exemptions only for medical reasons.
Although the Supreme Court has limited the federal government’s power to require Covid shots or tests, the justices have allowed state and local mandates, even without religious exemptions. The court left in force New York’s requirement in December.
The Supreme Court had already rejected the Maine challengers in October, when over three dissents the justices refused to intervene on an emergency basis.
The group, which includes one employer, said in court papers that Maine is violating the Constitution as well as a federal civil rights law that bars religious discrimination in the workplace.
“Maine’s categorical denial of religious exemptions for health-care workers who have bravely served as heroes for the last 18 months is an extreme outlier among the states,” the challengers argued.
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Maine officials countered that “what other states may choose to do does not answer the question of what is constitutionally required.” The state said its rule is a religiously neutral way to protect patients and those medically unable to get vaccinated.
The challengers said they object to the three available vaccines because they have links to cell lines derived from aborted fetuses.
The Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc. mRNA vaccines were tested using a cell line that originated with an aborted fetus in the 1970s. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine uses a different cell line during production and manufacturing. None of the vaccines contain aborted fetal cells.
