BREAKING: By a 6–3 vote, the Supreme Court DENIES a request to block Maine's COVID vaccine mandate for health care workers with religious objections. Gorsuch, Alito, and Thomas dissent. documentcloud.org/documents/2109…
Barrett, joined by Kavanaugh, writes that she declined to block the vaccine mandate in part because it came to the court on the shadow docket—highlighting the fact that she might reach a different result if the court took the case on the merits. documentcloud.org/documents/2109… 
In dissent, Gorsuch adopts the Republican Party line on vaccine mandates, insisting that "healthcare workers who have served on the front line of a pandemic" should not be forced to get vaccinated and highlighting their pitiable "plight."
documentcloud.org/documents/2109…
documentcloud.org/documents/2109…
Notably, Justice Gorsuch (joined by Alito and Thomas) expresses serious skepticism that Maine has a compelling interest in mandating COVID vaccinations among health care workers, noting the availability of vaccines and treatments. documentcloud.org/documents/2109…
Gorsuch, putting on his amateur epidemiologist hat, bashes the vaccine mandate from every direction: "Maine’s decision to deny a religious exemption in these circumstances doesn’t just fail the least restrictive means test, it borders on the irrational." documentcloud.org/documents/2109…
Gorsuch's dissent illustrates how the new rule—"any secular exemption triggers a religious exemption"—eats the old rules: He says the presence of a medical exemption triggers a mandatory religious exemption under the First Amendment. Those exemptions are actually quite different!
Gorsuch heavily implies that Maine officials are refusing to grant religious exemption to the vaccine mandate due to some deep-seated, thinly veiled animus toward religion. It's curious how he sees anti-religious animus everywhere but largely denies the existence of racism today.
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