![]() ![]() “Defendants identify evidence that seems to undermine the sincerity of Dunbar’s religious beliefs, but Dunbar has also presented evidence that suggests - under a lower than preponderance burden - that his beliefs are strongly held and genuine nonetheless.” Still, Gee stressed that the Supreme Court has observed that the “determination of what is a religious belief is more often than not a difficult and delicate task.” In a similar lawsuit against the San Diego Unified School District that went up to a federal appeals court, it was found that a request for an exemption could be denied on the grounds that the employee’s belief is not sincerely held or that such an exemption would pose an “undue hardship” by burdening the employer through the increased risk of spreading COVID-19 to others. The court expressed skepticism at the assertions, explaining that communing with God is not a “blanket privilege that undermines our system of ordered liberty.” She also noted that Dunbar’s original request for an exemption only mentioned unspecified medical issues, not any sort of religious objection. According to the actor, he was also told “that the COVID-19 vaccine was made from evil and that it will compromise spirit and that it was not for. It stressed that he had repeatedly taken actions contradicting tenets of the Church of Universal Wisdom by undergoing certain medical procedures less than a year before refusing the vaccine.ĭunbar answered by claiming that he communed with God, who allegedly made exceptions and “permitted to act differently,” he attested to the court. In response to an alleged violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which bars discrimination on the basis of race, religion and sex, among other things, 20th contested the sincerity of Dunbar’s beliefs. The return-to-work protocols, which were agreed upon by Hollywood’s guilds and studios, stated that vaccines could be required for those working in Zone A of a production - typically a project’s main actors, as well as key crewmembers who work closely with them in the highest-risk areas of the set. In 2022, Dunbar sued 20th and Disney, which owns the TV production arm of 20th Century Studios and has been dismissed from the case, after he was fired for refusing to comply with vaccine mandates. In that case, the court will similarly evaluate whether James and Timothy Wahl had religious beliefs that ABC should have accommodated by affording them exemptions and offering them certain workarounds to mandatory vaccination policies. ![]() It appears that Disney vetted exemption applications on a case-by-case basis, investigating whether the religions constituted true religious institutions and whether applicants actually followed the beliefs.įriday’s ruling comes on the heels of a Los Angeles judge concluding in February that ABC may have engaged in religious discrimination against two former General Hospital crewmembers, who sued the network after they were fired for refusing the vaccine. ![]() An exemption request from General Hospital’s Ingo Rademacher, who was fired from the series after refusing the vaccine, was similarly rejected after Disney, which owns ABC, questioned the sincerity of his belief in a book called The Revelation of Ramala. Dunbar claimed that his request for an exemption was denied after Disney determined that he was not a true believer in the Church of Universal Wisdom. If 20th is found to have engaged in religious discrimination in the trial, the decision could threaten how studios approach exemptions to vaccine mandates if they are reimplemented in the future. Fox Entertainment Head on Staying Lean As Big Companies Cut: "Part of Our Sales Pitch" ![]()
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