COVID-19 vaccine mandate did not violate nursing student’s civil rights, Iowa Supreme Court rules

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - The Iowa Supreme Court upheld a ruling that a mandate for a nursing student to get the COVID-19 vaccine does not amount to religious discrimination because it was the parents, not the student, who held the religious conviction.

The case stems from 2021, when Andrew Perry, a nursing student at the time at Dordt University in Sioux Center, sought a religious exemption from a COVID-19 vaccination requirement. The school did not mandate the vaccine but medical facilities mandated it for students to be able to perform clinical rotations required for Dordt’s nursing program.

Dordt administration denied the exemption. Perry filed a lawsuit under the Iowa Civil Rights Act but a lower court dismissed the lawsuit, finding Perry could not prove he held the religious conviction he cited.

The Iowa Supreme Court agreed, finding Perry’s parents held firm beliefs against the COVID-19 vaccine but Perry did not. Among other things, the ruling cited an email from Perry in May 2021 stating “I personally do not have a problem with the vaccine” but that his parents’ beliefs are “the main issue”.

The Courts found Perry’s parents had threatened to stop financially supporting him through college if he got the COVID-19 vaccine.

The Iowa Supreme Court ruling noted that courts are not allowed to determine whether a specific religious belief is theologically correct or valid, only whether a person truly holds that belief.

“Courts may not question the validity of religious principles,” Justice David May wrote in the unanimous opinion. “We cannot say what people should or should not believe. But courts may—and sometimes must—decide what someone actually believes.”

Editor’s note: this article has been updated to reflect that Dordt University did not require a COVID-19 vaccine but the medical facilities it partnered with required it for students performing required clinical rotations.