What is the rationale for the state to keep track of the religious preferences of its citizens in this manner? This can be used for nefarious purposes.
Not to mention this should not even be required given the supreme court struct down the vaccine mandate for everything except medicare/medicaid facilities. [1]
[Edit] Apparently federal facilities were not challenged. So only struck down for businesses.
> Not to mention this should not even be required given the supreme court struct down the vaccine mandate for everything except medicare/medicaid facilities
False.
There were at least three federal mandates:
(1) Federal workforce,
(2) Federally-funded healthcare facilities,
(3) Large businesses
In recent Supreme Court decisions in cases challenging #2 and #3, #3 was struck down and #2 was upheld, #1 was not challenged in those cases.
This database is concerned with #1, since it's an employee database for an agency within the federal government (hence why the employee database has a federal register notice.)
this mandate covers far more than federal employees. In this case, the mandate covers even contractors working for companies that have a federal contract in place, even if they or even their division has nothing to do with the contract.
Eg, several big banks are covered by #1, the way it is written. These banks have as their contractors, large consulting companies - which now enforce on their end.
> What is the rationale for the state to keep track of the religious preferences of its citizens in this manner?
It's a system for employee information gathered relevant to fulfilling the DC Pretrial Services Agency’s responsibility for health and safety for “individuals who are occupying PSA facilities, attending PSA-sponsored events, or otherwise engaged in official business on behalf of the Agency.”
I can't defend the state tracking this info, but I definitely asked my employer if they had granted any religious exemptions to their vaccine mandate (we are a small company so I don't think we fall under the federal guidelines). They never responded to me, but they also extended the WFH situation until May after Omicron accelerated.
