Santa Clara County doctor, radiation therapist sue over vaccine mandate

Two healthcare workers at Santa Clara County’s Valley Medical Center filed suit in federal court on Monday, alleging that their employer’s vaccine mandate from last year violates their religious beliefs and forced them out of their jobs.

The plaintiffs include radiation therapist Shannon Hartman and Dr. Katie Lightfoot, who are currently on unpaid leave. .

In the suit, Hartman claims that the county offered a provisional exemption for her religious beliefs but was unable to accommodate her at a similar pay rate to what she was already earning, forcing her to sell her house. Lightfoot alleges that she was also granted a provisional exemption based on her religion but that the county won’t help her complete her one-year residency, which she started in June.

“This should be a choice, not a universal for all,” said Lightfoot about the vaccines in an interview.

Both Hartman and Lightfoot’s suit is seeking to make the county accept all “sincere” religious exemptions to the vaccine, as well as allow those with COVID-19 antibodies to not be required to get a shot.

According to the county, 1,094 religious exemptions for the vaccine have been provisionally granted out of a total of 1,149 requests. A provisional exemption means that the county has not yet concluded whether the employee has a legally sufficient reason to be exempted.

“The County reserves the option to hold an interactive process meeting regarding, or to challenge the legal and/or factual grounds for, the employee’s exemption request,” according to a statement from the county. There are currently around 22,000 county workers.

Hartman and Lightfoot are being represented by the Pacific Justice Institute, a Sacramento-based law firm that has a history of advocating for anti-LGBTQ causes but has more recently been representing individuals who are contesting their employer’s vaccine requirements.

The two county workers, along with a handful of San Francisco county employees, tried suing their employers back in December but the case was dismissed at the end of February. On Monday, along with Hartman and Lightfoot, three San Francisco employers also sued their county. Lead attorney Russell Davis said he refiled the cases because of “procedural issues” that caused the other efforts to be unsuccessful.

County Counsel James Williams said in a statement, “We have no comment other than that we are prepared to defend the County’s policy — just as before.”

The suit represents a larger set of legal challenges facing Santa Clara County on their vaccine mandates and pandemic-related health orders.

In mid-February, a group of about 50 county employees that includes nurses, correctional deputies and technicians filed a lawsuit in federal court that also claims the county’s vaccine requirement is violating their religious freedoms. That legal effort faced a blow on March 8 after a judge dismissed a restraining order that would have put the employees back to work and ended the county’s vaccine mandate.

The county is also facing an extensive legal fight with San Jose’s Calvary Chapel, which was fined millions of dollars for flouting public health orders. On March 10, a federal judge urged the county to resolve its case against the church, stating that their lawsuit against Calvary Chapel had “mushroomed out of control” and that similar lawsuits around the country have been settled with churches earning hundreds of thousands of dollars.