A federal judge from the District of Oregon has partially denied Nike’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by employees, who claimed they suffered religious discrimination, medical discrimination, and battery because of Nike’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
In a short 4-page order, the court granted in part and denied in part the defendant’s motion to dismiss the claim brought by Doug Kerkering, Wanda Rozwadowska, and Hannah Thibodo.
“The Court dismisses Plaintiffs’ first claim for relief, allowing only Plaintiff Thibodo leave to amend,” wrote the judge. “Plaintiff Thibodo may file an amended complaint within two weeks from the entry of this Order to cure deficiencies in Thibodo’s allegations in the first claim. The Court denies Defendant’s motion with respect to Plaintiffs’ second and third claims for relief.”
The latter claims involved the employees’ allegation that Nike violated “Title VII under the Civil Rights Act and religious discrimination.”
Leslie Manookian, president of Health Freedom Defense Fund, which is supporting the plaintiffs, elaborated on Nike’s strategy and the judge’s finding.
“Nike attorneys actually said during oral argument that it was just a policy and that it wasn’t really a threat but what they wrote to their employees specifically said that failure to comply would result in certain ramifications up to and including termination,” she told Legal Newsline. “They tried to argue in front of the judge that it was just a policy and that it wasn’t real.”
She continued: “Corporations do this all the time, and defendants do this all the time. They mount a motion to dismiss because the best outcome for them is making the whole thing go away. They don’t want to litigate. They don’t want to defend themselves. They don’t want their executives to be deposed, and they certainly don’t want us to look at their internal communications through the process of discovery.”
HFDF issued the following statement when the lawsuit was filed: “Nike holds itself up as a diverse, equitable, and inclusive employer and has even developed reams of policies and procedures to guarantee religious freedom and privacy, but Nike ignored years of policy when it came to COVID-19.”
The full complaint can be viewed here: https://healthfreedomdefense.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Final-NIKE-complaint-Final.pdf
