San Francisco’s BART Loses Retrial Bid in Religious Bias Case

The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, better known as BART, lost its bid to get a new trial in a lawsuit brought by seven workers alleging the transit system violated their First Amendment rights by denying Covid-19 vaccine accommodations for their religious beliefs.

Due to the number of plaintiffs on the suit, the trial was separated into phases. The first phase took place in July, where court accepted a partial verdict in favor of just three plaintiffs on their prima facie cases, but declared a mistrial otherwise after the jury came to an impasse on the transit ...