Faith, Finance, and the Fifth Circuit: United's Vaccine Mandate Suit

This episode details an opinion from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit regarding a class-action lawsuit against United Airlines over its COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Several employees alleged the airline failed to provide religious and medical accommodations, effectively forcing them into unpaid leave or punitive masking protocols. The court affirmed a lower court's decision to certify a specific subclass of customer-facing employees seeking religious exemptions, while rejecting classes for medical accommodations and masking requirements. The majority concluded that the sincerity of religious beliefs and the reasonableness of unpaid leave could be evaluated through common evidence, despite the airline's objections. A concurring opinion agreed with the outcome but expressed reservations about treating individual religious conviction as a unified issue. Ultimately, the ruling allows the religious-discrimination claims to proceed as a collective action while maintaining the district court’s discretion to manage individual challenges later.