En Banc Petition Filed in Kane & Keil Federal Court Cases for Unvaccinated Educators
What is an "En Banc" Petition, you ask?
Kane v. de Blasio was the first federal case filed for fired unvaccinated workers in NYC denied a religious exemption to vaccination. Those workers were all teachers and educators. Shortly after this case, Keil v. City of New York was filed for other educators denied religious exemptions, and now the two cases have been combined in the courts.
Recently after sitting on our appeal for over 20 months, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the cases for the majority of Kane plaintiffs and all of the Keil plaintiffs. (Two of the Kane plaintiffs had their petitions granted).
Now our attorneys have responded to this decision by calling for an “en banc” review of the case by the 2nd Circuit.
What does that mean?
Our case was just ruled on by three of the justices in the 2nd Circuit Court. Their ruling was so incredibly blind to the evidence that was presented in over 100 pages to the court, that we are now asking all of the judges in the 2nd Circuit to review the case and the decision (which is a total of thirteen judges).
That’s because the decision treated the majority of our plaintiffs who made the same factual allegations as those whose petitions were granted, as though we had not made the very same arguments, and no explanation was given as to why we should be treated differently. Our attorneys are asking an en banc court to grant the petitions from all our plaintiffs, resolve the multiple conflicts, and reverse the dismissals.
The Court didn’t mention me - Michael Kane - by name even one time in their decision. Nor did they reference the names of nearly 2 dozen other plaintiffs who they also dismissed with no explanation. All they said about us was in a footnote, where it was stated no evidence was provided of religious animus for any of us.
That is patently false!
In the en banc petition, my attorneys write;
Still others, like Plaintiff Michael Kane, a non-denominational Buddhist, were denied because their beliefs conflicted with the Pope’s— even though Kane is not Catholic [A124-125]. And those with religious objections to the vaccines’ use of aborted fetal cell lines were told they did not qualify because the City’s health commissioner believed they were wrong about what their religion required. [E.g., A167-179].
Because of this, our attorneys have asked every justice in the 2nd Circuit Court to review our petition. If this petition is not granted, it is highly likely we will be headed to the Supreme Court of the United States.
We have been fighting these cases for over 3 years now.
"We have been fighting these cases for over 3 years now."
Thank you for that! You should be given honored veteran status, because you are fighting a just war for our freedom.
In the 9th Circuit, the court tried to construe my complaint to mean something other than what was plead. Before that, the EEOC turned a blind eye to the unlawful discrimination. Fortunately, a case, not mine, finally made a breakthrough and just like that, the COVID house of cards came crashing down. Now, the teachers in LA have a much better chance of regaining employment, we shall see. Best of luck to you all. Keep up the fight against the unjust justice system.