Judges reject employee claims, giving HR more certainty on enforcing workplace vaccine rules
Healthcare employers can breathe a little easier after the Tenth Circuit, on October 21, 2025, sided with hospitals in a high-profile vaccine mandate case.
The lawsuit sprang from the pandemic’s most heated debates: Should employers be able to require COVID-19 vaccinations as a condition of employment? For HR leaders, especially in healthcare, the answer from the courts is now clearer than ever.
The case centered on two Colorado healthcare employers – South Denver Cardiology Associates and the University of Colorado Hospital Authority – who fired staff members for refusing to comply with workplace COVID-19 vaccine policies. These policies, rolled out after the FDA’s emergency authorization of the first vaccines, required all employees to either get vaccinated or apply for a medical or religious exemption. The employees at the heart of the case chose not to get vaccinated and did not seek exemptions. Their employers, sticking to the policy, let them go.
The fired workers didn’t go quietly. They sued, arguing that a patchwork of federal laws, constitutional rights, and even contracts protected their right to decline the vaccine without losing their jobs. They claimed that the Emergency Use Authorization statute, the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act, and other legal sources gave them enforceable rights. They also said their constitutional rights to due process and equal...
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