Zachary Rackovan v. The Pennsylvania State University

Summary

The United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania granted Pennsylvania State University’s partial motion to dismiss Counts III and IV of Zachary Rackovan’s second amended complaint, with prejudice. The court held that the plaintiff’s objections to COVID-19 testing were not religious beliefs protected under Title VII and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, although claims concerning the reasonableness of testing as an accommodation to the vaccine policy could proceed. Leave to amend was denied as futile.

Holdings

1. When a plaintiff plausibly establishes a religious objection to an underlying employment policy, the plaintiff need not show that the objection to the employer's accommodation is independently religious in nature; the accommodation may instead be challenged as unreasonable under the circumstances.
2. Plaintiff's objection to the standalone testing policy was not plausibly religious in nature and therefore did not state a Title VII or PHRA failure-to-accommodate claim.
3. Leave to amend was properly denied because another amendment would be futile.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the second amended complaint plausibly alleged that Plaintiff's objection to weekly COVID-19 testing was a religious belief protected under Title VII and the PHRA.
2. Whether, under Federoff v. Geisinger Clinic, Plaintiff needed to show that his objection to the testing accommodation was independently religious in nature when the testing requirement was an accommodation to a vaccine policy.
3. Whether Counts III and IV should be dismissed with prejudice and whether leave to amend should be denied as futile.

Disposition

dismissed