Ann Arbor Employees Who Ran Afoul of City’s COVID-19 Policies File Civil Rights Lawsuit

Firefighter Tim Rugg protested Gov. Whitmer’s ban on large gatherings and was disciplined; Ann Arbor’s mayor joined a big ‘Black Lives Matter’ rally just a month later.

by Jaime A. Hope

On Dec. 19, 2022, four Ann Arbor city employees who were either fired or resigned due to the City’s refusal to grant them a religious exemption to the required COVID-19 vaccine filed suit against the City of Ann Arbor in United States District Court. Plaintiffs Jennifer Alexa, Brandon Boggs, Jeff Malone and Tim Rugg allege that City officials violated their civil rights.

In their federal lawsuit, the plaintiffs allege:

“The City of Ann Arbor deliberately flouted Plaintiffs’ Constitutional Rights, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (“ELCRA”) by blanketly denying religious exemptions from its mandatory COVID-19 policy based on a purported “insincerity” of its employees’ religious beliefs. Defendant’s vaccine mandate infringes on Plaintiffs’ fundamental right under the Michigan Constitution to ‘bodily integrity,’ as guaranteed by the privacy interests within the Due Process Clause of the Michigan Constitution, Const. 1963, art 1, §17, and recently recognized by the
State of Michigan Court of Claims in Planned Parenthood of Michigan, et al v Attorney General of the State of Michigan, et al, Case No. 22-000044….”

Ann Arbor implemented a COVID-19 vaccination requirement in August 2021. 

Tim Rugg, a 22-year veteran of the Ann Arbor Fire Department, was fired in Dec. 2021 for refusing to comply with a COVID vaccination mandate. But before that happened, he was disciplined for attending a protest against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s lockdown policies during the COVID pandemic. Rugg is also suing the City of Ann Arbor for violating his First Amendment right to free speech.

An employee disciplinary report filed against Rugg says he was given a verbal reprimand for attending an April 30, 2020, protest at the Michigan Capitol.

It cites his own statement — “Rugg admitted to traveling to the State Capitol on April 30, 2020 to attend an event with several hundred people” — as well as media photos showing people who were unmasked and also not practicing social distancing.

Rugg was suspended and then fired in late 2021 for not getting a COVID-19 vaccine. Rugg made an unsuccessful attempt to get an exemption from the mandate, citing religious grounds. Like Rugg, Jennifer Alexa, Brandon Boggs and Jeff Malone also cited religious grounds in their requests to be exempted from the mandate. Each of their requests was denied because city officials found they were “insincere in their religious beliefs.”

According to the lawsuit filed on behalf of the four former Ann Arbor employees by Hurwitz Law in Ann Arbor, “Plaintiffs have each submitted Charges of Discrimination with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (‘EEOC’) and Plaintiff Alexa, Plaintiff Boggs and Plaintiff Malone have received right to sue letters in the last 90 days.”

After Brandon Boggs expressed this interest, he claims he was explicitly told by city officials that merely stating, “being Christian, Catholic, or Baptist” wasn’t acceptable, that the religion must “truly believe” in not vaccinating, and that he would not be accommodated.

On December 20, 2021, Boggs resigned his position because his sincerely held religious beliefs precluded him from being vaccinated and city officials deterred him from submitting a religious accommodation request.

Likewise, Jeff Malone submitted a religious accommodation request. Malone had worked for the City for about one year prior to his request. In the suit, Malone claims he was threatened with firing and in response Malone resigned under duress on Dec. 19, 2021.

The four former employees allege in their civil rights lawsuit that “Defendant’s accommodation process was arbitrary.”

Alexa, Boggs, Rugg and Malone are seeking compensatory and punitive damages, as well as attorney’s fees.