Supreme Court rejects case from fired worker denied jobless benefits after refusing vaccine – By Maureen Groppe (USA Today) / April1, 2024
Minnesota said the worker’s objections to the COVID-19 vaccine were based less on religion and more on her belief that it didn’t work. The worker argued her body is a ‘temple of the Holy Spirit.’
WASHINGTON − The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the appeal of a Minnesota woman who said she was wrongly denied unemployment benefits after being fired for refusing to be vaccinated for COVID-19 because of her religious beliefs.
The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development determined she wasn’t eligible for benefits because her reasons for refusing the vaccine were based less on religion and more on a lack of trust that the vaccine was effective.
The case shows that the vaccine debate continues to smolder after the pandemic and after the Supreme Court in 2022 halted enforcement of a Biden administration vaccine-or-testing mandate for large employers but declined to hear a challenge to the administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care facilities that receive federal funding.
