Victory: Federal Court Rules University of Colorado Vaccine Policies “Motivated by Religious Animus”
www.thomasmoresociety.org
(May 9, 2024 – Denver, Colorado) The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit reversed a lower court decision on May 7, 2024, issuing a 55-page ruling holding that the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine’s policies refusing religious exemptions to its COVID-19 vaccination mandate were “motivated by religious animus” and unconstitutional under the First Amendment’s Religion Clauses.
In addition to finding religious animus, the Court found that the vaccine mandates of the University’s Anschutz Medical Campus granted “exemptions for some religions, but not others, because of differences in their religious doctrines” and granted “secular exemptions on more favorable terms than religious exemptions,” all of which was illegal. The court also reaffirmed the First Amendment principle that government may not test the sincerity of employees’ religious beliefs by judging the legitimacy of those doctrines. The Court also held that the University’s mandates violated “clearly established” constitutional rights.
In the appeal, filed in March 2022, Thomas More Society represented 17 faculty and students who asserted that the university refused to accommodate their sincerely and deeply held religious objections that prevented them from taking the vaccine.
