{"id":2019511,"date":"2023-09-01T15:18:02","date_gmt":"2023-09-01T19:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/musicians-sue-north-carolina-symphony-over-covid-vaccine-mandate-controversy\/"},"modified":"2023-09-01T15:20:11","modified_gmt":"2023-09-01T19:20:11","slug":"musicians-sue-north-carolina-symphony-over-covid-vaccine-mandate-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/musicians-sue-north-carolina-symphony-over-covid-vaccine-mandate-controversy\/","title":{"rendered":"Musicians sue NC Symphony over COVID vaccine mandate dispute."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/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%2Fmusicians-sue-north-carolina-symphony-over-covid-vaccine-mandate-controversy%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=2019511&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--><h2>In \u200da brewing legal showdown, three\u2062 musicians take\u2062 on \u2062the North Carolina State\u2064 Symphony<\/h2>\n<p>In a brewing legal showdown, three musicians have\u200d taken the \u2064North Carolina \u200bState Symphony to federal\u200b court over its COVID-19\u2063 vaccine mandate, accusing\u200d the Symphony of violating the musicians&#8217; \u2062religious freedom by groundlessly rejecting their religious exemption requests.<\/p>\n<p>The musicians\u2014Chris\u2062 Caudill, Rachel Niketopoulos, and Dovid Friedlander\u2014alleged in a complaint (<a href=\"https:\/\/libertycenter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Caudill-v.-NC-Symphony-Complaint.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pdf<\/a>)\u200d filed on Aug. 31 at \u2063the U.S. District Court \u200bfor the \u2064Eastern District of\u2064 North Carolina that the\u200c North Carolina State Symphony abused its authority to &#8220;wreck&#8221; their \u200bcareers when it \u2062fired them for refusing \u2064the\u2064 vaccine.<\/p>\n<p>In the summer of 2021, the \u200bNorth Carolina State Symphony implemented\u200b a vaccine mandate, requiring \u2062all \u2062musicians to be vaccinated against\u2064 COVID-19.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>Related Stories<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/not-on-my-watch-governor-says-no-to-new-covid-mandates-5484257\">&#8216;Not on My Watch&#8217;: \u2062Iowa Governor Says\u2062 No New COVID Mandates<\/a> (8\/31\/2023)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/article\/demand-for-new-covid-booster-likely-low-unless-mandated-expert-5483576\">Demand for New COVID Booster Likely \u200dLow Unless Mandated: Expert<\/a> (8\/30\/2023)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Citing their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-republicans-push-bill-aimed-at-balancing-lgbt-rights-and-religious-freedom\/\" title=\"House Republicans Push Bill Aimed at Balancing LGBT Rights and Religious Freedom\">sincerely held religious beliefs<\/a>, the three musicians submitted requests for exemptions, expressing their willingness\u200d to \u200bcomply with additional safety\u2062 measures, including regular \u2063testing.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Friedlander is Jewish and believes his &#8220;body is\u200d a temple&#8221; that vaccines in general defile and so &#8220;he conscientiously avoids medicine and vaccines in\u200c general,&#8221; per \u2063the complaint.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Caudill\u2063 and \u2062Ms. Niketopoulos are both Buddhist and the complaint said that \u200bneither of them could take any of\u2064 the available COVID-19\u200d vaccines without violating \u2064their Buddhist faith &#8220;because the vaccines had\u200c been\u200c tested on animals and cell\u2063 lines \u2064from\u200c aborted fetal cell were used in\u2064 testing \/ production of the vaccines.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The \u2064musicians said they didn&#8217;t ask for any special treatment \u200dor \u200da blanket exemption.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They \u2063were all\u200c ready, willing, and\u200b able to\u2064 take reasonable measures to mitigate\u2064 the spread of COVID-19, including by engaging in periodic\u2064 testing, masking, and physical distancing,&#8221; the complaint\u2064 reads.<\/p>\n<p>Scientific \u200cstudies\u2064 cited in the complaint show that, \u200dtechnically, the Symphony could \u200dhave accommodated their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/musicians-sue-north-carolina-symphony-over-covid-vaccine-mandate-controversy\/\" title=\"Musicians sue NC Symphony over COVID vaccine mandate dispute.\">religious faith exemption requests<\/a> while allowing them to play.<\/p>\n<h2>Religious Exemptions \u2063Denied<\/h2>\n<p>The musicians believed their requests would be granted, given what they said was their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/5-lgbtq-pride-products-carried-by-retailers-this-year\/\" title=\"5 LGBTQ \u2018Pride\u2019 Products Carried By Retailers This Year\">long-standing commitment<\/a> to the Symphony and its audience, and \u2062their conviction that\u200b the Symphony&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/court-grants-10-3-million-settlement-to-health-care-workers-denied-religious-exemptions-for-covid-vaccine\/\" title=\"Court Grants .3 Million Settlement To Health Care Workers Denied Religious Exemptions For COVID Vaccine\">religious accommodation policy<\/a> was genuine.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Despite \u2062the fact the Policy specifically contemplated\u2064 religious accommodations from the vaccine mandate, the Symphony attempted to deter employees from seeking religious exemptions,&#8221;\u200d attorneys\u200d for the trio\u200c wrote.<\/p>\n<p>To the astonishment of the three musicians, their\u2062 religious exemption requests\u200d were primarily denied \u2063and later\u200d the Symphony&#8217;s CEO, Sandi MacDonald, placed them on unpaid leave and ultimately terminated their employment.<\/p>\n<p>The complaint states that the Symphony denied the \u2064exemptions for two reasons\u2014insufficient information on the forms to qualify\u2064 for a religious exemption and that granting \u2064the requests would \u200cpresent an &#8220;undue hardship&#8221; on the Symphony.<\/p>\n<p>Lawyers for the trio \u2064said the\u2062 first objection was misplaced.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Plaintiffs explained their religious beliefs and related objections to \u2064the COVID-19 vaccines in sufficient detail to establish that their objections were both\u2064 based on religion and\u2062 sincerely held,&#8221; the attorneys \u2064wrote in \u2063the complaint.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But the Plaintiffs got\u200c the message\u2014Defendants did not actually want more information. Instead, \u2064Ms. \u200dMacdonald was casting doubt on whether Plaintiffs even held their religious convictions in the first place,&#8221; the complaint reads.<\/p>\n<h2>&#8216;Culture of Vaccination&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p>Attorneys for\u2063 the trio said that the\u200c reason the Symphony denied the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/exclusive-marine-corps-commanders-using-form-letter-to-deny-religious-exemptions\/\" title=\"Exclusive: Marine Corps Commanders Using Form Letter to Deny Religious Exemptions\">religious accommodation requests<\/a> wasn&#8217;t because there weren&#8217;t \u2063reasonable mitigation measures\u2014like masking and physical distancing\u2014available.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Rather, as Ms. Macdonald later admitted, she wanted to \u200cpromote a &#8216;culture&#8217;\u2063 of vaccination at the Symphony,&#8221; the complaint \u200creads.<\/p>\n<p>After first being placed on unpaid leave\u2064 with health benefits, they were fired.<\/p>\n<p>The complaint says that the abrupt decision to terminate \u200dthe musicians left them facing devastating financial, professional, and emotional consequences.<\/p>\n<p>For more than fifteen years, the trio had been a key part of the Symphony, inspiring audiences with their music, per the complaint.<\/p>\n<p>They&#8217;re seeking damages and \u2063want to be reinstated\u2064 in their jobs.<\/p>\n<p>The Symphony did not \u2064im<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three musicians are suing the North Carolina State Symphony in federal court, claiming that the orchestra&#8217;s COVID-19 vaccine requirement violates their religious freedom. Chris Caudill, Rachel Niketopoulos, and Dovid Friedlander argue that their religious exemption requests were unjustly denied. The complaint was filed on August 31.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":2019512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2019511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times"],"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\/2019511","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\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2019511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2019511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2019512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2019511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2019511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2019511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}