Court system drops vaccination requirement as lawsuit filed

The New York state court system has withdrawn a requirement that judges and employees receive COVID-19 vaccines, according to a filing made on Feb. 16 in a judge's lawsuit claiming he should have been granted a religious exemption, Reuters reports. Lawyers for Frank Mora, a city court judge in Poughkeepsie, New York, said in the filing that the state Unified Court System issued a memo to employees on Feb. 15 announcing that the mandate adopted last year would be discontinued. The court system last April fired 103 employees who did not comply with the vaccine requirement and required Mora and three other judges to work remotely.