Martha’s Vineyard Ferry Workers Lose Covid-Shot Rule Appeal (1)

Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Island ferry employees were properly denied a preliminary injunction in their lawsuit alleging rejection of their requests for exemption from their employer’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate violated their right to religious freedom, the First Circuit ruled Friday.

There was no evidence the Woods Hole, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority’s claimed explanation for the mandate—to limit Covid infections and the virus spreading—was a pretext, a unanimous panel said. The workers’ pointing to the policy’s written instructions only mentioning preventing infections and transmission was “a quarrel over semantics.”

Prevent can refer to making something impossible, but it can ...