A federal judge in Pennsylvania last week declined to side with either a health care system or one of its former caseworkers in a religious discrimination and retaliation lawsuit for failure to get the COVID-19 vaccine, concluding the employee’s claims for failure to accommodate and disparate treatment should be left for a jury to decide.
In a ruling issued May 3, U.S. District Judge Malachy E. Mannion of the Middle District of Pennsylvania denied both motions for summary judgment for the plaintiff, Hanif Bey, and the defendant, Pocono Medical Center, doing business as Lehigh Valley Health Network. Mannion concluded there were issues of fact a jury should decide, after Bey, a Moorish American Muslim, filed suit following his termination from the medical center for failing to obtain a COVID-19 vaccine.
