The office of Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach issued the following news release this week.

As a result of the Kansas Attorney General vigorously defending state law, the Kansas Supreme Court on Friday, Sept. 26, upheld a 2021 Kansas law that allows workers to refuse the COVID-19 vaccine on religious grounds.

“During the COVID crisis, all too many private companies imposed draconian vaccine requirements on their employees. The Kansas Legislature responded and provided Kansans a broad religious exemption,” Kobach said. “When I became attorney general, I was determined to preserve this law against challenges in court. This decision marks a victory for our office and a great victory for all Kansans.”

The 2021 law, passed during the sole special session in Kansas history called by the legislature itself, enables employees seeking a religious exemption to submit a written waiver request attesting that receiving the COVID-19 vaccine would violate their sincerely held religious beliefs. Employers then must grant the exemption without inquiring into the sincerity of the religious belief.

Powerback Rehabilitation, a health-care company, sought judicial review of a Kansas Department of Labor order arguing that state law conflicted with a federal law that required the company to vaccinate its employees. 

Writing for the majority of the Kansas Supreme Court, Justice Caleb Stegall wrote, “when a federal law permits, but does not require, action by a private party, there is generally room for the state to prohibit that action – in this case, inquiring into religious sincerity” and “simply put, this case asks us to resolve the question – which law must Powerback follow? We hold the two regimes are not in conflict, thus Powerback must comply with both.”