{"id":1740265,"date":"2022-11-15T18:32:54","date_gmt":"2022-11-15T23:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1740265"},"modified":"2022-11-15T18:32:57","modified_gmt":"2022-11-15T23:32:57","slug":"former-refs-sue-nba-claim-they-were-fired-for-refusing-covid-vaccine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-refs-sue-nba-claim-they-were-fired-for-refusing-covid-vaccine\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Refs Sue NBA, Claim They Were Fired For Refusing COVID Vaccine"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fformer-refs-sue-nba-claim-they-were-fired-for-refusing-covid-vaccine%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1740265&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Over the weekend, three former NBA referees filed a lawsuit against the NBA, charging they were fired for refusing to get a COVID vaccine.<\/p>\n<p>The three referees, Kenny Mauer, Mark Ayotte and Jason Phillips, declined to obtain the vaccine for religious reasons.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHad the NBA not taken upon itself to force faith-based conscientious objectors to adhere to secular norms, none of plaintiffs\u2019 complained-of injuries would have manifested. In sum: Plaintiffs were persecuted,\u201d the lawsuit claims, as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/sports\/former-nba-refs-claim-they-were-fired-covid-vax-refusal-allege-jab-job-ultimatum?intcmp=tw_fnc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fox News<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<p>The referees also say that even with the NBA rescinding the requirement for a COVID vaccine for the 2022-23 season, they have not been reinstated.<\/p>\n<p>In July, the NBA <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/VinceGoodwill\/status\/1552017186729984000?s=20&#038;t=aS5eU8pf8CP4r07mHzKAag\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">released a memo<\/a> stating they \u201cwill not have a vaccine mandate in place next season, but will strongly suggest all personnel be up to date with vaccinations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mauer served as a referee in the league for 35 years, making him the third-longest serving referee in league history. Last February, Mauer says 19 of the league\u2019s 73 referees were reluctant to get one of the COVID vaccines the NBA approved.<\/p>\n<p>A Catholic, Mauer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/2022\/02\/23\/nba-referee-ken-mauer-vaccine-mandate\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told<\/a> Jason Whitlock, \u201cI never thought that my faith in our Lord Jesus Christ would prevent me or stop me or get in the way of me refereeing NBA basketball games. \u2026 That\u2019s what\u2019s happened. Not to just me, but other people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He cited theories that aborted fetal tissue had been used in the vaccines.<\/p>\n<p>Going into the 2021-22 season, reports <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/news\/report-nba-reaches-95-vaccination-rate-among-players\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">claimed<\/a> that 95% of players had either been vaccinated or were undergoing the process. That meant that on average, one player per team was not vaccinated.<\/p>\n<p>Last Friday, former Washington State University football coach Nick Rolovich <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Daily\/Issues\/2022\/11\/15\/Colleges\/WSU-football-coach-Nick-Rolovich-wrongful-termination-lawsuit-covid-vaccine-mandate.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">filed a lawsuit<\/a> against the university, contending his \u201crights were violated when he was fired for failing to comply with the state\u2019s COVID-19 vaccine mandate,\u201d WSU countered that Rolovich\u2019s suit was \u201cwholly without merit.<\/p>\n<p>Rolovich\u2019s suit mentions \u201ceight counts, alleging breach of contract, discrimination, wrongful withholding of wages, as well as violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the First and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.\u201d The suit contends that WSU and Washington governor Jay Inslee \u201cforced Rolovich to choose between his job and an \u2018experimental vaccine.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the weekend, three former NBA referees filed a lawsuit against the NBA, charging they were fired for refusing to get a COVID vaccine. The three referees, Kenny Mauer, Mark Ayotte and Jason Phillips, declined to obtain the vaccine for religious reasons. \u201cHad the NBA not taken upon itself to force faith-based conscientious objectors to &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":1740270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1740265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1740265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/60"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1740265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1740265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1740270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1740265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1740265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1740265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}