Sally W. Tarquinio v. Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment to Respondent and did not require employer APL to perform an individualized assessment of the Petitioner’s medical condition and job requirements. Instead, the Fourth Circuit’s finding allowed the employer to deny accommodation based on the CDC’s list of contraindications that did not include Petitioner’s diagnoses. Whether the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and this Court’s decisions recognizing liberty in medical decision-making permit an employer to terminate an employee who requests a medical exemption from vaccination based on the certificate of a licensed treating physician who recommends against vaccination because the employer refuses to accept any contraindications not found in the list prepared by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).