Catholic woman awarded $12.7 million in religious discrimination lawsuit over COVID vaccine

The jury found that BCBSM engaged in unlawful religious discrimination against Domski by denying an accommodation based on sincerely held religious beliefs.

A jury awarded a Catholic woman from Michigan $12.7 million in a religious discrimination lawsuit after her former employer – Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) – refused to give her a religious exemption from the state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate company and fired her.

The woman, Lisa Domski, filed a religious exemption request with the company because the three then-approved COVID-19 vaccines were developed or tested using fetal cell lines derived from abortions, court documents show.

In her request, Domski wrote that taking the vaccine “would be a terrible sin and would break my relationship with God.” BCBSM determined that her position did not meet the criteria for a religious exemption.

Domski, who was employed as an information technology specialist, was working remotely when she requested the accommodation and had no in-person interaction with other employees. She was fired on January 5, 2022, after working for BCBSM for almost 15 years.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that abortion is “seriously contrary to the moral law” and that “life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception.” It calls all abortion a “moral evil” and calls abortion and infanticide “heinous crimes.”

However, the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said in December 2020 that it is morally permissible for Catholics to receive the vaccines, even if they are made using cell lines from tissue obtained through two abortions. The statement added that obtaining the vaccine “does not constitute formal cooperation with abortion,” but emphasized that the statement is not “a moral endorsement of the use of cell lines derived from aborted fetuses.”

Although the Vatican approved the use of the vaccine, the agency stated that vaccination “must be voluntary” and that anyone who refuses for reasons of conscience to receive a vaccine produced with cell lines from aborted fetuses “must do their utmost to avoid… become vehicles.” for the transmission of the infectious agent.”

Domski’s lawyer explains the case

Jon Marko, the lead attorney at Marko Law who represented Domski, told CNA that his client “is a devout Catholic and she also believes abortion is a sin and a sin against God.”

When it came to religious exemptions, Marko said BCBSM “definitely didn’t take her seriously, and they certainly didn’t take others seriously,” especially when it came to religious exemption requests “regarding fetal cells.” He said three out of four requests were denied, implying that BCBSM treated employees as if they were “making it up or not being sincere.”

The jury found that BCBSM engaged in unlawful religious discrimination against Domski by denying an accommodation based on sincerely held religious beliefs. The jury found that the company had violated both federal and state laws prohibiting religious discrimination.

Domski was awarded nearly $1.7 million in damages for front and back pay and another $1 million in non-economic damages. She also received $10 million in damages, which are only awarded in civil cases when the jury determines the defendant acted maliciously or recklessly.

Marko told CNA that the damages “are intended to deter a defendant from future misconduct, to punish him, to set an example, and that’s what they did.”

“Standing up for your rights is not easy,” Marko said. “… She had to choose between her career and her conscience and she gave up her career instead of giving up her faith, and it’s a very difficult decision.”

When reached for comment, BCBSM provided CNA with a statement saying the company was “working to promote the health and safety of our colleagues, stakeholders and communities” through policies that included a vaccine mandate.

The statement claimed that “Blue Cross designed an accommodations process that complied with state and federal law and respected the sincerely held religious beliefs of its employees.”

“While Blue Cross respects the jury process and thanks the individual jurors for their service, we are disappointed in the verdict,” the statement said. “Blauwe Kruis is reviewing its legal options and will determine its further course of action in the coming days.”

Thousands of similar lawsuits

Across the country, thousands of workers have filed lawsuits against employers after they were denied exemptions from COVID-19 vaccine mandates, many of which are based on religious objections to the vaccines. Marko himself represents 170 people to whom BCBSM has denied exemptions.

Other employers have also been forced to pay millions of dollars to injured workers whose requests for religious exemptions from COVID-19 vaccine mandates were denied. 500 employees by 2022 secured a $10.3 million settlement with Illinois-based NorthShore University Health System after waivers were denied. A jury last month awarded $1 million each to six people who were denied religious accommodations by Bay Area Rapid Transit in San Francisco.

Similar lawsuits are still ongoing across the country.