WA faces spate of lawsuits from workers fired for refusing COVID vaccines

[Kennah]

Source: The Seattle Times

Gov. Jay Inslee recently ended the COVID-19 vaccination mandate, but for some of the public workers fired for refusing to comply, the legal battle goes on.

The state is facing more than a dozen lawsuits involving at least 180 ex-employees who allege they were unjustly forced from their jobs after asserting religious or other objections to receiving the vaccines.

The plaintiffs include state troopers, nurses, psychiatrists, mental health counselors, fish biologists and bank regulators, among others. Some had decades of state service. But their careers were cut short after they declined to meet Inslee’s October 2021 deadline to get vaccinated.

In the highest-profile case, former Washington State football coach Nick Rolovich has sued the state and WSU, seeking $25 million in compensation after being fired for refusing to get a COVID vaccine. A federal judge this week dismissed Inslee and WSU athletic director Patrick Chun as defendants in the lawsuit, but left open three claims against WSU.

Read more: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/wa-faces-spate-of-lawsuits-from-workers-fired-for-refusing-covid-vaccines/

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The mandate was upheld under settled caselaw, so I suspect removal will be similarly upheld.

The question, in my mind, is whether plaintiffs would prevail IF they could show there was political motivation behind the mandate.

[pnwmom]

1. Well, they CAN''T show there was political motivation behind the mandate.

Inslee's only motivation was to listen to the public health experts, including those at the CDC, the public health departments, and epidemiologists at UW and other institutions -- and protect the health of WA citizens. And he succeeded. Even though the pandemic began here, before there was any known treatment and the virus hadn't even been identified, we had among the lowest deaths per 100K in the country.

[LPBBEAR]

2. F**k these idiot...

halfwit morons. Medical so called professionals refusing to follow infectious disease protocols in a medical facility. They damn well deserved to have their butts fired!

[ificandream]

4. Agreed. Never understood how they could hold their jobs and not follow protocols.

[orleans]

3. k&r nt

[bucolic_frolic]

5. Don't want no science, wanna be protected by spirits and talismans

They think vaccines contaminate their bodies

[nuxvomica]

6. After Dobbs, government could actually force vaccinations

I mean they could legally restrain and vaccinate you because Alito couldn't find an implicit right to privacy/bodily autonomy in the Constitution. This same crowd that complained about vaccine mandates (including Stefanik) are okay with denying women control over their own bodies.

[Aristus]

7. Are they going to claim a Constitutional right to expose other people to a potentially deadly

disease?

I really hate these motherfuckers...

[Initech]

8. Fucking whiny-ass anti-vaxxer morons.