Appeals Court Upholds United Airlines Vaccine Mandate

In a divided decision, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans has upheld the employee vaccine mandate enacted by United Airlines, denying the bid by six of the company’s workers to block the edict.

The vote by the three-judge panel was 2-1.

The employees were asking for an injunction against the new policy, which allows United to impose unpaid leave on unvaccinated employees including those who are given religious and medical exemptions, according to Reuters News Service.

The media outlet reported that Judge James Ho was the dissenting member of the panel. Ho wrote that “vaccine mandates like the one United is attempting to impose here present a crisis of conscience for many people of faith. To hypothesize that the earthly reward of monetary damages could compensate for these profound challenges of faith is to misunderstand the entire nature of religious conviction at its most foundational level. And that is so whether the mandate comes from D.C. or the C-Suite.”

The six employees filed a federal lawsuit six weeks after United became the first airline to institute a mandatory employee vaccination program in August of this year.

The employees alleged discrimination with the policy against employees who requested religious or medical accommodations,

The 5th Circuit Court’s decision cited a previous decision by U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman in Texas last month. Pittman criticized United’s attitude in imposing the mandate but ruled that companies must maintain autonomy in setting their own human resources policy.