A federal jury has awarded a record $12 million verdict to a Catholic woman fired by the health insurance company Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan for refusing the harmful COVID-19 shot over religious reasons. According to the lawsuit, Blue Cross unlawfully terminated 250 employees who had submitted religious exemption requests, of which nearly 180 of those fired employees are also suing the company in separate lawsuits.
Lisa Domski, a longtime remote employee with Blue Cross, was fired in January 2022 after the company denied her religious exemption request from its COVID shot mandate. Domski had sought the exemption because she objected to the three shot manufacturers, Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, using aborted fetal cells to test and manufacture the shot believing abortion to be “wrong” according to her Catholic faith.
Even though Domski, an IT specialist at Blue Cross for 32 years, worked remotely, she was not excluded from the company’s mandate. After the mandate was implemented, Domski submitted a written statement to the company outlining her religious beliefs and providing the contact information of her priest and parish. In court, Blue Cross argued her accommodation didn’t meet the criteria for a religious exemption and even argued it was unaware of her Catholic faith at the time of her firing, despite already having her written statement.
The jury found that Blue Cross had violated federal and state law in denying her exemption and awarded Domski $10 million in punitive damages, $1.375 million for forgone future wages, $1 million in noneconomic damages, and $315,000 in back pay. Domski’s lawsuit had accused Blue Cross of violating the 1964 Civil Rights Act and Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act for disparate treatment and by failing to make reasonable accommodation for an employee’s religious beliefs.
The nearly 180 other wrongful termination lawsuits against Blue Cross are set to begin next year. The company has yet to acknowledge any wrongdoing and stated it is “reviewing its legal options and will determine its path forward in the coming days.”
The significant payout comes several months after Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee agreed to a nearly $700,000 settlement with a woman similarly terminated for refusing to comply with its COVID-19 mandate. In that case, a federal jury felt the woman proved that her decision to refuse the vaccine was based on a “sincerely held religious belief” which led the company to settle the case.
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “We commend this jury verdict, for the law is on the side of those refuse an unlawful mandate for an experimental drug. Religious accommodations are protected by law and blanket denials are not. There have been thousands of people fired across the country who still need justice. People should not have to choose between their faith and their job.”
