Our recent drift into authoritarianism hurt a lot of innocent people. And even before last week’s election, the process of “truth and reconciliation” was gaining momentum. This is the first in a series that tracks some of the more notable cases of justice restored.
(SFGate) - Six former BART employees are each due a $1 million payout after accusing the agency of wrongly firing them because of a COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
On Wednesday, a jury in the U.S District Court for the Northern District of California sided with the employees who refused the vaccine for religious reasons. BART has been ordered to pay the group more than $7.8 million, with the individual employees receiving between nearly $1.2 million and $1.5 million each.
In October 2021, BART’s Board of Directors approved the mandate, stating that all employees must be vaccinated against the virus, though it allowed for some exceptions, including religious accommodations.
In a class-action lawsuit filed in October 2022, employees said BART granted the vaccine exemption but denied accommodations. Some accommodations, which fall under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act, could include job restructuring, job reassignment or modifications to an employee’s work (to work from home or have regular COVID tests, for example). Employees said when they refused to receive the vaccine, they were fired.
A federal jury in Detroit awarded more than $12 million Friday to a former Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) employee who was terminated after declining to get a COVID-19 vaccination, citing religious discrimination.
According to the verdict form, Lisa Domski, who worked at the insurance company for more than 30 years as an IT specialist, received $10 million in punitive damages against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. The jury also awarded her approximately $1.7 million in lost wages and $1 million in noneconomic damages.
Court records show Domski worked 100% remotely during the pandemic and 75% remotely before COVID-19 emerged in 2020. Her attorney, Jon Marko, argued that even without vaccination, she posed no risk to others due to her remote work arrangement.
Now the billionaire Microsoft co-founder may have to pay a price for his foundation's role in promoting the novel therapeutics.
The Court of North Netherlands in Leeuwarden ruled that Gates can't get out of a vaccine-injury lawsuit in the wealthy European country for allegedly "deliberately misleading" the plaintiffs, whose names are redacted, "in an unlawful manner and thereby inducing them" to take COVID vaccines, which Gates knew or "should have known … were not safe and effective."
FEMA fired an employee who had instructed relief workers in Florida to not go to homes with yard signs supporting presidential candidate Donald Trump.
“This was reprehensible,” FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell wrote in a statement.
The firing comes days after Trump won the presidency against Vice President Kamala Harris, but weeks into the recovery effort of Hurricane Milton.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Saturday confirmed that it fired an employee who had instructed relief workers in Florida to not go to homes with yard signs in support of then presidential candidate Donald Trump.
“This is a clear violation of FEMA’s core values and principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation,” FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell wrote in a statement. “This was reprehensible.”
The Daily Wire first reported on Friday that the now-terminated FEMA supervisor had ordered her employees to exclude Trump-supportive houses from their recovery efforts.
“I will continue to do everything I can to make sure this never happens again,” Criswell said in the statement. She added that the matter had been referred to the Office of Special Counsel for an investigation.
hopefully such lawsuits will continue up the pecking order. My ultimate hope is that ignorance, incompetence, plausible deniability, and professional pressures (I.e.,” just following orders”) are no longer legal scape goats.
That “common sense” net would catch a lot of fish and become a very effective deterant.
hopefully such lawsuits will continue up the pecking order. My ultimate hope is that ignorance, incompetence, plausible deniability, and professional pressures (I.e.,” just following orders”) are no longer legal scape goats.
That “common sense” net would catch a lot of fish and become a very effective deterant.
Who woke up the legal system?