Mandatory COVID-19 Testing

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Holly Svendsen v. Jay Pritzker

Case No.: 23-1421

Officials: Flaum, Easterbrook, and Pryor, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Mandatory COVID-19 Testing

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Governor of Illinois issued an executive order requiring personnel in primary and secondary schools to be tested regularly for the disease unless they had been vaccinated against it. Several persons affected by this order filed suit in state court contending that this requirement offended state law. They sought declaratory and injunctive relief but not damages.

While the state case was pending, the same plaintiffs—who had been suspended or fired because they refused to be either tested or vaccinated—filed a federal suit adding damages to the relief they sought. They asserted that the Governor and other public officials had violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments, applied through 42 U.S.C. §1983; Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which requires the accommodation of religious beliefs, 42 U.S.C. §2000e(j); the federal statute allowing emergency-use authorization of vaccines, 21 U.S.C. §360bbb–3; the Illinois Public Health Act, 20 ILCS 2305/2; the Illinois Religious Freedom Restoration Act, 775 ILCS 35/15; and the Equal Protection Clause of the Illinois Constitution.

Affirmed.

Decided 01/29/24

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