On July 20, 2023, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts dismissed an employee’s Title VII lawsuit, by which she challenged her employer’s denial of her request for religious exemption from a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy. The case, Griffin v. Massachusetts Department of Revenue, was initiated by a former tax auditor who worked for the MA Department of Revenue (MDOR) and was terminated after she refused to get vaccinated. The plaintiff alleged that her employer’s conduct amounted to unlawful religious discrimination because she had a sincerely held religious belief against receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. The MDOR moved to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. The court granted the MDOR’s motion, noting, “while plaintiff is entitled to practice her own individualized form of faith, she is not entitled to a virtually automatic exception from the vaccination requirement, based solely on her own representation that it violates her religious principles on an ad hoc basis.”
Notably, the employee’s refusal to adhere to her employer’s vaccine policy was based merely on her contention that she “closely contemplated with God” and was “shown that [she] should not receive the COVID-19 vaccine.” Thus, the Court held that “[t]he central question is whether a simple allegation that plaintiff prayed to God and was ‘shown’ that she should not receive the vaccine—without more—is sufficient to support a claim...
Images of the Whitegate fuel protests earlier this month were altered to make it appear gardaí were violent towards protesters. The AI-doctored images were shared widely online, including by inter...