Feds sue Ozaukee County for requiring nursing home assistant to get flu shot over her religious objections

The federal government has sued Ozaukee County, claiming it violated the civil rights of a worker at a county-owned nursing home when her employers made her get a flu shot in violation of her religious beliefs to continue working there.

Lasata Care Center in Cedarburg required all employees to get an annual flu shot unless they could get a religious exemption. They required a “written statement from their clergy leader supporting the exemption with a clear reason and explanation.” Exempted employees had to wear a mask during flu season.

Barnell Williams, a certified nursing assistant, worked at Lasata from December 2015 to June 2017.

In the fall of 2016, Williams learned all employees had to get a flu shot by late October. She told then-Administrator Ralph Luedtke she believed her body was "a Holy Temple" and the Bible prohibited the introduction of foreign substances like a vaccine in her body.

Because she didn't belong to a church or have any affiliation with an organized religion, she couldn't get a letter from a clergy leader. According to the lawsuit, Luedtke offered no alternative way for Williams to prove the sincerity of her belief.

Facing the prospect of losing her job, Williams reluctantly agreed to get a flu shot at Lasata from a staff member and immediately afterward began crying and became emotionally distraught.

"Williams suffered severe emotional distress from receiving the flu shot in violation of her religious beliefs, including withdrawing from work and her personal life, suffering from sleep problems, anxiety, and fear of 'going to Hell' because she had disobeyed the Bible by receiving the shot," the suit claims.

In October 2016, after getting the shot, she complained to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. After the EEOC investigated, found probable cause of discrimination and couldn't resolve matters, it referred the matter to the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. It filed its suit in Milwaukee federal court on Tuesday.

The lawsuit notes that as a public, nonreligious facility, a clergy letter wasn't necessary to Lasata's business purposes or operation and that Lasata could have easily allowed Williams to prove the validity of her religious beliefs other than by providing a clergy letter.

Lasata has since eliminated the clergy letter requirement for religious exemptions to the flu shot requirement, according to the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages for Williams' pain and suffering as well as "additional relief as justice may require."

Ozaukee County Administrator Jason Dzwinel said, "The county will file a motion to dismiss the Justice Department lawsuit and believes that current case law will support our motion.”

Justice Department lawyers also did not immediately return messages seeking more information about Williams.