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A court in Kansas ruled that a hospital improperly fired an employee when it rejected her request for a religious exemption to the experimental COVID-19 shot.
According to Topeka Capital-Journal, St. Luke’s Health Systems denied a request from Sheryl Glean in November 2021.
The hospital claimed Glean expressed concerns about physical harm from the shot as opposed to a “sincerely held religious belief.”
Glean said her in her request that her body is “holy.”
She also consulted with her pastor and family about the inoculation.
“I’ve talk (sic) to my Pastor from my church and other family members about my decision refusing to get the vaccine and I did my own research regarding Covid vaccine and they help me with my decisions,” Glean wrote in the exemption request, according to Topeka Capital-Journal.
The Court of Appeal of the State of Kansas ruled the hospital was wrong in its interpretation of Glean’s exemption request.
Today, we get to celebrate a WIN! A Kansas court ruled in favor of Sheryl Glean, a Kansas nurse who was wrongly fired for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine on religious grounds. This is a direct result of your efforts and support!
Check out the article: https://t.co/6wM1xhk67I pic.twitter.com/L6I1jCPTm5
— KSHF (@KSHFforFreedom) January 28, 2025
From the Topeka Capital-Journal:
Glean worked at St. Luke’s South Hospital, which is in Overland Park.
St. Luke’s argued that Glean’s request focuses on concern about bodily harm and not religious belief. The Kansas Department of Labor sided with Glean, saying that Glean’s termination was punitive action for failing to comply with vaccination request.
The Johnson County District Court, however, ruled in St. Luke’s favor when it reviewed the complaint. On Friday, the Appeals Court of Kansas ruled that the district court improperly interpreted a 2021 law governing requirements and exemptions for employers’ COVID-19 policies.
The law says employers must accept an exemption request if it would endanger an employee’s life or the life of someone who lives with them, which would require confirmation by a health care professional, or if it violates “sincerely held religious beliefs of the employee, as evidence by an accompanying written statement signed by the employee.”
The appeals court said St. Luke’s improperly interpreted this law to mean it could “scrutinize an employee’s statement to determine whether the employee’s invocation of the religious exemption was religiously based.”
“Not only did she explain that her refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccine is based on her religious views … [she] further evidenced the religiosity of her beliefs when she stated that she had discussed her concerns about getting the vaccine with the pastor from her church,” the court said, according to The Defender.
“The court pointed out that the Kansas law on COVID-19 vaccination requirements specifies that an employer ‘shall grant an exemption requested in accordance with this section based on sincerely held religious beliefs without inquiring into the sincerity of the request.’ In other words, the hospital was wrong for even questioning the sincerity of Glean’s religious beliefs regarding her request,” the outlet added.
👏 Court Rules Against Hospital That Fired Woman for Refusing COVID Vaccine
Saint Luke’s Health Systems improperly fired an employee when it rejected her request for a religious exemption from the hospital system’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, the Court of Appeal of the State of… pic.twitter.com/WX5hUBh6ud
— Children’s Health Defense (@ChildrensHD) January 24, 2025
The court also found a scriptural basis for Glean’s statement that her body is “holy.”
“Not only did she explain that her refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccine is based on her religious views—as in she believes the vaccine may cause harm to her body—she clarified the religious basis for her concern (or why she believes getting the vaccine would be wrong) when she said since she became a Christian she believes the Bible tells her that her body is holy. See 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, New International Version Bible (‘Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.’),” the court said.
More from The Defender:
The Jan. 17 ruling is the latest development in a back-and-forth legal battle that started when Saint Luke’s fired Glean on Nov. 30, 2021, for failing to comply with the vaccination requirement.
Glean sued Saint Luke’s, alleging the hospital had improperly denied her religious exemption request under Kansas law on COVID-19 vaccination requirements.
The law, passed in 2021, requires employers that mandate the COVID-19 vaccine to exempt an employee who submits a written waiver request, as long as the employee states in the request that complying with the mandate would “endanger the life or health of the employee or an individual who resides with the employee,” or “violate sincerely held religious beliefs of the employee.”
The law defines “religious beliefs” as including “theistic and non-theistic moral and ethical beliefs as to what is right and wrong that are sincerely held with the strength of traditional religious views.”
According to the Topeka Capital-Journal, the Kansas Department of Labor sided with Glean, finding that Saint Luke’s had violated the law. However, Saint Luke’s petitioned the Johnson County District Court to review the decision.
The district court decided in Saint Luke’s favor, ruling that Glean hadn’t demonstrated a sincerely held religious belief.
But the Kansas Court of Appeal disagreed. It reversed the district court’s decision, noting that “the district court improperly heightened the requirements under the statute and ignored the context in which they were made.”
Read the full ruling HERE.