SEATTLE — Former Washington State football coach Nick Rolovich has lost his lawsuit against the university that stemmed from his firing in October 2021 for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
U.S. District Court Judge Thomas O. Rice ruled Monday in the Eastern District in Washington that he was dismissing the plaintiff’s request for partial summary judgment and granting the defendant’s cross request for summary judgment.
“The Clerk of Court is directed to enter Judgment in favor of Defendant Washington State University,” Rice wrote in his order.
Rolovich claimed in his lawsuit that WSU had violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and Washington’s Law Against Discrimination, and that it had breached his contract and improperly withheld wages.
Rice ruled against Rolovich on all four of those claims.
Rolovich had argued that WSU failed to accommodate his religious beliefs in refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
But Rice wrote that the record did not support Rolovich’s claim of religious objection to the vaccination.
“Plaintiff frequently expressed secular concerns about the COVID-19 vaccine to friends, family members and co-workers,” Rice wrote in the report. “In the thousands of pages of discovery, Plaintiff does not invoke a religious objection to the vaccine. This alone is a basis for denying Plaintiff’s claimed religious objection.”
Rice wrote in his order that Rolovich had “repeatedly refused to wear a mask during games and meetings,” that his job “required frequent interactions with students, co-workers, donors, the media, and others (hundreds of people).”