Washington State Superior Court Judge Tanya Thorp has thrown out a lawsuit from City of Seattle employees who claimed they were fired for their religious beliefs. The dozen employees objected to the Covid-19 vaccine on religious grounds, but the judge ruled they weren’t religious enough.
The judge also claimed that the law does not require employers, not even government employers, to accommodate personal choices “merely because they are framed in religious terms.”
EXCLUSIVE: Judge rules against Seattle employees fired for religious refusal of COVID vax – The Post Millennial
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Judge Tanya L. Thorp claimed that prayer is not a reasonable manner for decision making.
King County Superior Court Judge Tanya L. Thorp has ruled in favor of the City of Seattle in a high-profile lawsuit brought by dozens of former city employees who were terminated after refusing to comply with the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Thorp ruled that none of them had sincerely held religious beliefs when they objected to the vaccine mandate. She said their beliefs are “secular cloaked in religious vernacular,” and that prayer is not a reasonable manner for decision making.
In her ruling, Thorp agreed with arguments presented by the city’s outside counsel, Seyfarth Shaw LLP, granting a motion for summary judgment on most of the plaintiffs’ claims. The employees from City Light (SCL), the Seattle Police Department (SPD), Seattle Public Utilities (SPU), Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), and the city’s Finance/Admin department (FAS) had alleged violations of Washington’s Law Against Discrimination (WLAD), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, failure to accommodate religious beliefs and wrongful termination.
