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A Michigan jury has awarded a former remote worker over $12 million after her employer fired her for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine despite her religious objections.
Lisa Domski worked at the insurance company Blue Cross Blue Shield for 37 years, but that all changed in 2021 when the company established a vaccine mandate and told her she had to take the experimental jab or be fired.
Domski, an IT specialist, worked remotely 100 percent of the time during the pandemic and 75 percent of the time before the pandemic. Her legal counsel, John Marko, said that she posed no threat to anyone due to her remote working situation.
Domski is a devout Catholic. In requesting a religious accommodation, she provided her employer with a written statement of her beliefs and the name and contact information of her priest.
However, Blue Cross denied her religious accommodation petition and in court filings claimed that she did not have a sincerely held religious belief.
Marko says Blue Cross never contacted her priest.
The companyโs refusal to recognize her religious beliefs led the jury to award her the highest amount of damages ever awarded to a single person fired for refusing the COVID vaccine.
Domski was awarded $10 million in punitive damages, $1.3 million in front pay, $1 million in pain and suffering, and $315,000 in back pay.
Marko praised the verdict as a repudiation of religious discrimination.
โOur forefathers fought and died for the freedom for each American to practice his or her own religion,โ he stated.
โNeither the government nor a corporation has a right to force an individual to choose between his or her career and conscience. Lisa refused to renounce her faith and beliefs and was wrongfully terminated from the only job she had ever known. The jury’s verdict today tells BCBSM that religious discrimination has no place in America and affirms each person’s right to religious freedom.โ
Blue Cross says it instituted the mandate โto promote the health and safety of our colleagues, stakeholders, and communities.โ
It argues that it respected federal law with its religious accommodation process and signaled that it may attempt an appeal of the verdict.
Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, employers are required to grant employees religious accommodations unless the employer can show that the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the business.
Last year, the Supreme Court, in the case of Groff v. Dejoy, unanimously ruled on the side of a mail carrier who had been fired after a denial of his request for religious accommodation. The opinion clarified an earlier case and instructed employers that to meet the standard of an undue hardship the accommodation must require the employer to bear substantial costs or expenditures.
This isnโt the only jury to rule that Blue Cross violated an employeeโs right to a religious accommodation from the vaccine.
In June, Tanja Benton, another fully remote employee, was awarded almost $700,000 in damages.
Benton, an employee of Blue Cross Blue Shield Tennessee (BCBST) from 2005 to 2021, requested a religious exemption โbased upon personal research, that all COVID-19 vaccines are derived from aborted fetus cell lines. Because of her sincerely held religious beliefs concerning abortion, [she] cannot in good conscience consume the vaccine, which would not only defile her body but also anger and dishonor God.โ
The organization denied her religious accommodation but offered her โsafe harborโ to apply for another job with the company. However, it soon became clear that the company wasnโt offering Benton any assistance or assurance that she would be given one of the other jobs. She applied for two jobs but was informed those required her to also take the vaccine. Shortly after her safe harbor promise expired, BCBST said that all jobs would require the COVID-19 vaccine.
The jury found that Benton โproved by a preponderance of the evidence that her refusal to receive the Covid vaccination was based upon a sincerely held religious belief.โ They also found that the company โdid not prove by a preponderance of the evidence either that it had offered a reasonable accommodation to Plaintiff or that it could not reasonably accommodate the Plaintiffโs religious beliefs without undue hardship.โ
It isnโt just Blue Cross that is facing the repercussions of violating employeeโs liberties.
In October, six former San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District employees were granted $7.8 million (over $1 million each) after they were fired despite requesting a religious accommodation. Their attorneys had argued,
โOf the 179 religious objector employees, not one received an accommodation. Exclusion of religious people from the enjoyment of a right stands in violation of the First Amendmentโs religion clauses and federal and state anti-discrimination in employment laws.โ
Lead trial legal counsel Kevin Snider stated,
โThe rail employees chose to lose their livelihood rather than deny their faith. That in itself shows the sincerity and depth of their convictions. After nearly three years of struggle, these essential workers feel they were heard and understood by the jury and are overjoyed and relieved by the verdict.โ
Earlier this year, the U.S. Navy also settled with servicemembers who were punished for refusing to take the COVID vaccine.
During the COVID hysteria, too many civil liberties were crushed by power-hungry politicians and terrified employers. Many believed that masking, lockdown orders, and vaccine mandates were the only way to keep people safe. None of those approaches proved beneficial but were, in fact, harmful.
Suddenly peopleโs religious liberty and right to make personal medical decisions was secondary to the collectiveโs desire for mass conformity to fight COVID.
The Constitution does not allow for such contemporary whims to trump enumerated rights. Unfortunately, many took the vaccines whether out of fear of COVID, fear of transmitting it to those around them, or fear of being fired.
Tragically, many have been physically and permanently harmed by the vaccines. Others were forced to violate their conscience in taking the vaccine.
ย If this type of fervor and mass hysteria ever again grips the nation, letโs pray that individuals will remember their God-given rights and that employers will remember their responsibilities and the costly penalties that come with foregoing them.
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