A federal appeals court Thursday overturned a judge’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit challenging Gov. Janet Mills’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers, according to the Portland Press Herald.
A panel of three judges for the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously found U.S. District Judge Jon Levy had not properly weighed the possible public health impact of religious exemptions and ordered the lower court to review that portion of the case, according to the Portland newspaper.
Seven health care workers, whose names were publicly revealed in July 2022, brought the case in 2021, alleging that they were all fired after they were denied COVID-19 vaccine exemptions for religious reasons, according to the complaint.
Levy ruled in August 2022 that if hospitals made accommodations for those workers seeking an exemption, the hospitals would be breaking state law.
