Fired Wash. firefighters appeal ruling over COVID vaccine mandate lawsuit

By Paige Cornwell
The Seattle Times

REDMOND, Wash. — Lawyers representing eight former Redmond firefighters who sued the Eastside city after they lost their jobs because they wouldn’t comply with the state’s 2021 COVID vaccine mandate are appealing a district-court ruling that sided with the city.

The lawyers filed an opening brief this week in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the 2025 ruling that upheld the city’s decision to deny accommodations for unvaccinated firefighters to stay in their roles. Their lawsuit alleges that the city violated federal civil rights laws prohibiting religious discrimination and retaliation.

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The city on Friday declined to comment on the lawsuit. In court documents, the city argued that allowing the firefighters to stay in their roles — with masks and testing instead of vaccinations — would have caused an “undue hardship.”

The Redmond firefighters are among multiple groups of Washington firefighters who have pursued litigation against their employers over COVID-19 vaccine requirements. The lawsuits are at various stages; the U.S. Supreme Court this month declined to hear a petition from eight former Snohomish Regional Fire & Rescue firefighters asking that an appeals court ruling be reversed.

Redmond firefighters were some of the first in the nation to respond to the COVID pandemic in early 2020. They assisted other departments with calls from Life Care Center of Kirkland, the first confirmed COVID outbreak in the U.S., and continued to work as cases surged in the region and beyond. They were also among the most vocal in their resistance to the vaccine mandate, testifying at City Council meetings and speaking with media about wanting vaccine exemptions because of religious reasons.

They lost their jobs or went on leave when the mandate went into effect. The orders were terminated in 2023, but the firefighters who lost their jobs didn’t get their jobs back, as the city said there were no open positions in the department.

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