Supreme Court again denies hearing for NYC teachers' vax mandate case

April 18 (UPI) -- The Supreme Court on Monday again declined to hear an appeal from New York City teachers who claimed they were unjustly fired or put on leave for refusing the city's COVID-19 vaccination mandate.

The court declined without comment for a second time to hear further arguments in the case, in which the teachers claimed the mandate unconstitutionally prevented them from doing their jobs.

Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor first declined to hear the teachers' emergency application in February.

According to court documents, the teachers said the requirement put in place by Mayor Bill de Blasio in October mandating that all of the city's 148,000 employees be vaccinated violated their religious freedoms.

Religious and medical exemptions were handed out to hundreds of employees, but a religious exemption requires supporting documentation from a religious leader.

The city in February fired more than 1,400 unvaccinated workers, most of them Department of Education employees.

After Sotomayor's decision, the teachers refiled the case and asked that it be considered instead by conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, who referred it to the full court to consider. The panel, however, again refused to wade into the case.