East Texas court vindicates religious freedom

A recent case from the U.S. Supreme Court on religion in the workplace was applied by a federal trial court in Tyler, Texas, to the benefit of an employee.

Then came COVID . . .

Derek Troutman was enjoying a great career with drug giant Teva Pharmaceuticals, first as a salesperson then as a district manager supervising salespeople. All was well until Teva, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, required all of its employees with forward-facing duties (i.e., meeting with others face to face, including doctors) to get a vaccination protecting against the virus.

Employees could ask for a religious exemption. Troutman submitted a detailed request explaining that he could not be vaccinated. In part it read:

• “My body is a temple” and “[I am commanded] to honor God, our Creator, and possessor of our very bodies by not defiling [it].”
• Taking a vaccine violates this deeply held belief, especially because the vaccine contains fetal cells. He cited biblical verses to support this position.
• God created the human immune system and therefore “it is an assault to many Christians including myself to be forced to be injected with a man-made substance in an effort to ‘improve’ the immune system.”

Teva’s response came 11 days later: