The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case of the so-called “Snohomish Eight” – firefighters who refused the Covid vaccine on religious grounds.
That means the ruling against them at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will stand.
Their employer, Snohomish Regional Fire & Rescue, said exempting the firefighters from the vaccine mandate would constitute an undue hardship because of health risks, potential liability, and lost contracts. The agency negotiated an agreement with the union to put the firefighters on unpaid leave for eight months.
The firefighters said the agency could have accommodated them by allowing them to keep using the precautions in place before the Covid vaccine was available.
The Ninth Circuit decision last fall noted that Snohomish Regional Fire & Rescue “provided unrebutted medical evidence that showed the inadequacy of the firefighters’ proposed accommodation. The panel concluded that SRFR thus showed that it could not reasonably have accommodated the firefighters without undue hardship in October 2021.”