Couple with high-risk pregnancy leads lawsuit against vaccine mandates after being denied medical exemption

More than 90 plaintiffs including employees from the Washington State Patrol, the Department of Corrections, the state ferry system, firefighters, and health care workers, recently filed suit against Democrat Governor Jay Inslee's vaccine mandates for state employees.

Last month, Inslee ordered all state employees and contractors, K-12 education staffers and health care workers to get fully vaccinated by Oct. 18 or be terminated and lose their benefits.

According to the lawsuit, filed Friday in Walla Walla County Superior Court, the state and local government employees contend that Inslee’s mandate oversteps his legal authority and violates their constitutional rights. The lawsuit cites emails which demonstrate that Inslee’s office crafted the religious exemption to the mandate to be "as narrow as possible."

Though employees are able to seek medical or religious exemptions, many have been told they could still be fired or reassigned even if their exemption are approved. Inslee’s mandate is stricter than those in almost every other state in the country, as well as those of the federal government, which allow weekly coronavirus testing for workers as an opt out.