Employers are not required to honor reasonable accommodations that violate state law

This is another COVID-19 reasonable accommodation case. This plaintiff did not want to take the vaccine, claiming it violated her religious convictions. She also objected to her employer's alternative to the vaccine: routine COVID testing. Plaintiff objected to that on religious grounds, also. Plaintiff's proposed accommodation would have her working remotely. Plaintiff loses.

The case is Russo v. Patchogue-Medford Sch. Dist., issued on February 26. The pandemic threw everyone for a loop. School teachers like plaintiff were teaching remotely for a while, but the districts eventually re-opened the building. That's when the accommodation requests started. In this case, the district said the accommodation -- continued remote working -- would be an undue hardship because it would violate a New York State regulation that requires routine COVID testing. The other undue hardship is this: the district requires teachers like plaintiff to be present in the building as an essential function of her employment. The district would incur significant expenses were the plaintiff to work remotely, requiring the district to pay someone to incur plaintiff's in-person duties.

The district court granted the school district's motion for summary judgment, and the Court of Appeals affirms. The Second Circuit has previously held that it's an undue hardship if the proposed accommodation would violate federal regulations. This case extends that logic to accommodation requests that would violate state law. The added district expense to pay plaintiff's in-person replacement.

The other claim involved the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. This may be the first published Second Circuit case involving GINA. Plaintiff said the school district violated GINA in soliciting and using her genetic information by inquiring about her and her child's vaccination histories during the religious exemption signatures. The Court of Appeals (Walker, Leval and Bianco) holds there is no GINA claim "because her family member's vaccine history does not constitute genetic information under the statute." Under the statute, "genetic information" involves an individual's genetic tests, the genetic tests of an individual's family members, and the manifestation of a disease or disorder in an individual's family members.