While many have memory-holed the abuses of the COVID-19-era — from closed churches and open liquor stores, to loved ones dying alone in hospitals, to forced masking and pervasive censorship — a Christian employee of the largest national laboratory in the United States is continuing his court battle four years later against his employer, who he alleges discriminated against him for refusing to take the coronavirus vaccine.
In late September, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit revived Jeffrey Bilyeu’s case against his employer, UT-Battelle, which manages the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Roane County, Tennessee. The lab is a 30,000-acre campus with over 300 buildings that house a publicly unknown number of top-secret projects pertaining to national security. UT-Battelle contracts 100 percent of its business with the U.S. Department of Energy — $2.7 billion worth — doing research and development on nuclear energy and modeling systems, stockpile testing, and many other activities that require special clearances to participate in.
The federal appeals court on Sept. 29 vacated a lower court order siding with UT-Battelle in a summary judgment, reversed the lower court’s judgment on Bilyeu’s retaliation claim, and remanded the case back to district court for further proceedings. Circuit Judge John K. Bush, an appointee of President Donald Trump, wrote for a three-judge panel that Bilyeu “has shown that a triable issue exists over whether UT-Battelle retaliated against him by subjecting him to an interview process that demeaned Mr. Bilyeu for his religious beliefs.”
Breitbart News reported on the case back in 2021, when it was still a class action lawsuit in a Tennessee district court. Since then, the case has morphed into just Bilyeu, with many employees settling with UT-Battelle. In a separate action unrelated to Bilyeu’s case last month, UT-Battelle agreed to pay more than $2.8 million to a class of employees to settle Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) COVID-19 vaccine mandate-related religious discrimination charges.
“We are very thankful for the tireless work of the EEOC and Acting Chair Lucas,” said Jordan Lefebvre, a former UT-Battelle employee and beneficiary of the EEOC settlement. Breitbart News previously interviewed Lefebvre, who was one of the lab’s employees leading the class-action charge against UT-Battelle in 2021.
“While UT-Battelle employees never should have suffered such harm from their employer, we are pleased that the EEOC saw UT-Battelle’s actions for what they were: plain religious discrimination,” he continued. “With the EEOC claims settled, we are hopeful that this will stand as a reminder to UT-Battelle and other employers that they cannot disregard the religious beliefs of their employees.”
READ MORE: Exclusive — Nuclear Scientists Sound Alarm on Lab Vaccine Mandates: ‘Fallout Will Be Felt for Months to Come’
While the EEOC verdict provides some measure of closure to affected employees, UT-Battelle’s pandemic-era actions will not be swept under the rug, as the Sixth Circuit’s decision will now allow Bilyeu’s case to go to trial where attorneys will air out publicly what allegedly happened to employees of faith four years ago.
“We are pleased that the Sixth Circuit appreciated what our clients have been saying all along — UT-Battelle’s refusal to provide reasonable accommodations to employees of faith blatantly violates Title VII,” Bilyeu’s attorney Brian Field with powerhouse D.C. law firm Schaerr Jaffe told Breitbart News. “We look forward to continuing to represent Mr. Bilyeu at trial, where UT-Battelle’s discriminatory actions will be on display.”
‘Faith-Based Vaccine Resisters’
UT-Battelle announced its vaccine mandate on August 26, 2021, requiring employees to get the vaccine or face termination, according to court documents. The policy was based on the Biden administration’s coronavirus vaccine mandate for federal contractors, which was later struck down.
Jeffrey Bilyeu objected to taking the coronavirus vaccine as a Christian because the vaccines were developed using cell lines extracted from aborted babies. He is opposed to abortion because he believes it is the murder of another human being, court documents detail.
Bilyeu ended up applying for the company’s religious accommodation, which was later revealed to be unpaid leave or the use of vacation days until the end of the pandemic.
During the accommodation process, Bilyeu allegedly had to submit to a mandatory panel interview “in a room too small for social distancing” where he was presented with a “fact-sheet” that included quotes from various faith leaders supporting the COVID-19 vaccine on the basis of caring for one’s neighbor, Bilyeu’s opening brief to the Sixth Circuit alleges. Attorneys for Bilyeu learned during discovery that the “fact-sheet” consisted of information about faith leaders pulled from WebMD.com, the brief shows. Bilyeu was allegedly made to sign the “fact-sheet” acknowledging he had read it.
Bilyeu alleges he was subsequently interrogated by UT-Battelle’s legal counsel and chief medical officer “about his religious beliefs, use of over-the-counter medication, and the foods he ate,” the brief states.
“UT-Battelle’s purpose in conducting the interview and providing the ‘fact sheet’ was to ‘educate’ and coerce employees like Mr. Bilyeu to abandon their beliefs,” his attorneys contend in the brief.
UT-Battelle also allegedly made unvaccinated employees wear special lanyards identifying them, and circulated an internal news document pointing employees to a podcast from now-former National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins calling people who declined the vaccine for religious reasons “faith-based vaccine resisters,” the brief alleges.
Bilyeu ended up obtaining the religious exemption and began using one month’s worth of vacation days before going on unpaid leave for three days. UT-Battelle then ended its unpaid leave policy and allowed him to return to work after a court struck down the Biden administration’s contractor vaccine mandate. Once the Biden mandate was gone, UT-Battelle had to comply with a Tennessee law banning employers from mandating COVID-19 vaccines for employees.
Bilyeu alleges that the unpaid leave policy and its prolonged looming threat caused him and his family to incur financial and emotional damages, including taking out a loan against his wife’s 401(k), selling a family car and boat, and using vacation time that was never restored so he would not lose health insurance to care for a child with a serious medical condition. His wife, Jessica Bilyeu, is also an employee of UT-Battelle and was a part of the lawsuit, although she was ultimately able to obtain a medical exemption for breast-feeding her newborn and is no longer a part of the suit.
Bilyeu is ultimately arguing that UT-Battelle violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 based on disparate treatment, failure to accommodate, and retaliation.
“A reasonable juror could conclude that this type of interview process could well dissuade a reasonable worker from making a request for accommodations. That is because, for example, a reasonable juror could conclude that UT-Battelle designed the materials to convince employees that their religious views were incorrect or to shame those for views different from those held by the ‘Vatican and US Bishops’ and ‘leaders from a variety of faith traditions,’” Judge Bush wrote for the Sixth Circuit.
“Essentially, a reasonable juror could believe the fact sheet would make interviewees feel like bad Christians and attempt to coerce the employee into changing their religious beliefs. And that leads directly to the conclusion a reasonable juror could reach that UT-Battelle was forcing Mr. Bilyeu to give up his religious beliefs to comply with a workplace mandate,” he continued. “Forcing someone to sit through a harassing interview where they are told they are a ‘bad Christian’ who should ‘see the light’ and ‘change their ways’ is a materially adverse employment action, and Mr. Bilyeu presented evidence essentially arguing that this is what took place. It is now up to a jury to decide whether it actually did.”
A spokesperson for UT-Battelle told Breitbart News the company has “no comment” on the case.
In a press release on Sept. 30 announcing the separate EEOC settlement, Stephen Streiffer, President and CEO of UT-Battelle, said the company “has always respected the religious beliefs and practices of its employees.”
“The COVID-19 pandemic required extraordinary measures to protect staff members’ health and safety while they worked together to keep the lab open,” Streiffer said. “During unprecedented times, their dedication allowed us to continue fulfilling our national missions, including the production of medical isotopes to fight cancer and support national security. We appreciate the assistance of the EEOC in resolving these disputes, which allows us to move forward fully focused on our work for the nation.”
The case is Bilyeu v. UT-Battelle, No. 24-5418 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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