Christian schools, churches, and seminaries contend OSHA’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate clashes with their constitutionally protected religious freedom, setting up a legal contest that pits the power of the federal government to act in a public health crisis against sectarian rights.
Religious institutions have filed at least four lawsuits seeking to bar enforcement of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s emergency standard requiring U.S. employers with 100 or more workers to ensure that all members of their workforce are fully vaccinated or tested at least weekly, starting Jan. 4.
The institutions maintain the federal mandate, which contained no faith-based carve-out, forces ...