The Department of Justice confirmed that it had filed an appeal in the case of former Washington State University head football coach Nick Rolovich, who was fired for not getting the COVID-19 vaccine during the insanity of the pandemic.
On Friday, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Civil Rights Division shared a post about Coach Rolovich, who was fired in 2021 when he refused to get vaccinated, despite citing a religious exemption.
The post noted that the DOJ has filed an appeal in Rolovich v. Washington State University to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and “are standing behind Coach Rolovich and his right to freely exercise his faith.”
Dhillon replied, “Yes, we are! Thanks to the whole @CivilRights team who worked on this! @jesus_osete.”
In response to the appeal, Rolovich (now the senior offensive assistant coach at the University of California, Berkeley) said, “I gave my blood, sweat, and tears to WSU, only for the administration to fire me for my faith.”
“I wasn’t looking for a fight—I just asked to live out my beliefs,” he added. “I hope the court will ensure that no coach or player can be forced to choose between their faith and the game they love.”
Joseph Davis, senior counsel at Becket, the nonprofit legal institute helping the coach, said that:
“Washington State sacked its own coach for standing firm in his faith. In America, you have to accommodate religion, not target it just because some on the sidelines complain. The Ninth Circuit should hold Washington State accountable for what it did—and uphold Coach Rolovich’s and every American’s right to stay true to their faith on the job.”
In 2021, we reported that the university had fired Rolovich and four assistant coaches, who all refused to get the jab, as mandated for all Washington state employees by then-state Democratic Governor Jay Inslee.
RedState's Jerry Wilson wrote at the time:
Rolovich had previously requested an exemption from the vaccine mandate based on his adherence to Catholicism.
The Church’s primary dictum regarding COVID vaccination was issued in December of last year [2020]. The document issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Note on the morality of using some anti-Covid-19-vaccines, focused primarily on the ethical issue of Catholics taking a vaccine that, as the document states:
employed cell lines drawn from tissue obtained from two abortions that occurred in the last century.
In 2022, RedState’s Bonchie also reported on the coach’s story, and some of the insane details Rolovich shared about the tremendous pressure the university put him under to get vaccinated - humiliating him in the process.
Washington State allegedly wanted to turn Rolovich getting the jab into some sort of sideshow all while knowing he was against receiving the vaccine.
“The AD said ‘Hey, let’s put you on the 50-yard line, we’ll have the team all around you and the doctor will give you the vaccine in front of everybody,’” Rolovich said on ‘The Jason Rantz Show.’
“I said, ‘Absolutely not. I have no desire to do that.’ I wasn’t going to make it a circus.”
That same year, Rolovich fought back by filing a wrongful termination suit against Washington University after refusing to get vaccinated when he was denied a religious exemption,according to the AP.
In January of this year, Washington University celebrated its win against Rolovich after a district judge found the school was justified in terminating him.
This is a developing story. RedState will provide updates as more information becomes available.
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