PJI Files Multiple Lawsuits Against Discriminatory Employers

SALEM, OR –Pacific Justice Institute’s Oregon staff attorney, Ray D. Hacke filed five lawsuits against hospitals and schools in Oregon that discriminated against employees who sought religious exemptions from state mandates requiring that they be vaccinated against COVID-19.

“Even in a pandemic, Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 and equivalent state laws require that employers accommodate their employees’ religious beliefs, if at all possible,” Hacke said. “The employers we’re suing could have provided a variety of accommodations that would have enabled their employees to keep working while limiting the spread of COVID-19. These employers chose not to accommodate them, but to punish them for their sincere religious beliefs.” Many of the employees who were denied accommodations were ultimately fired for adhering to their religious convictions concerning COVID-19 vaccines. 

“The pandemic served as a convenient excuse for healthcare employers, public school districts and other employers to get rid of employees whose religious beliefs they found disagreeable,” PJI President Brad Dacus said. “Employment discrimination laws at the state and federal levels exist specifically to protect people of faith from having to choose between adhering to their sincerely held beliefs and remaining employed. PJI is firmly committed to obtaining justice for individuals who have endured financial hardship because they were fired or suspended for refusing to abandon their sincerely held beliefs. We are working hard not just in Oregon, but nationwide to ensure that their employers do not get away with unlawful discrimination.”

More lawsuits concerning religious exemptions are on the horizon in the coming weeks. Among PJI’s upcoming targets are Kaiser Permanente, and Oregon Health & Science University, which have openly and unconstitutionally declared certain religious beliefs to be unworthy of religious exemptions.