A 2026 Supreme Court test decided whether these workers could sue at all
Fired for refusing a COVID-19 vaccine, 22 former University of Washington (UW) workers can't sue the school for constitutional violations, an appeals court ruled.
The Ninth Circuit US Court of Appeals ruled on August 13, 2026, affirming a lower court and closing one route the former staff had tried against their old employer.
The dispute goes back to the pandemic. On August 20, 2021, then-Governor Jay Inslee issued a proclamation requiring healthcare providers, education workers, and state employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 by October 18, 2021. Staff could apply for a medical or religious exemption, and exempt workers were entitled to reasonable accommodation - unless that accommodation created undue hardship for the employer.
UW, a public university that runs hospitals and clinics, was covered by the mandate and adopted its own vaccination policy. The 22 workers applied for and received religious and medical exemptions. Even so, UW concluded that keeping them in their roles would impose undue hardship, and it denied many of the requests. None received the vaccine. None could be reassigned or moved to remote work. All were let go.
The former employees sued under Section 1983 - a federal law that lets people take state actors to court for violating their constitutional rights. They claimed UW had breached their First and Fourteenth Amendment protections.
The case then narrowed to one decisive...
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