Appeals Court Revives Case Against COVID-19 Vaccine Requirement

Unvaccinated firefighters sued Washington state and Spokane officials over the vaccination requirements.

A man received a dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in downtown Seattle on Jan. 24, 2021. Grant Hindsley/AFP via Getty Images

A U.S. appeals court on June 18 revived a case against a COVID-19 vaccine mandate issued by a city in Washington state under a proclamation from state officials.

Firefighters who applied for exemptions to the Spokane mandate “plausibly assert that the individual city defendants applied the proclamation arbitrarily and capriciously, and that they thereby showed callous disregard to the firefighters’ Free Exercise rights,” U.S. Circuit Judge Ryan Nelson wrote in the ruling.