A federal judge sided with WSU on Monday, throwing out former head coach Rolovich’s wrongful termination lawsuit against the university. WSU terminated Rolovich after he refused to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
Rolovich was terminated in October 2021 after the university denied his appeal claiming religious exemption. Rolovich filed his lawsuit against the university in November 2022.
The decision to throw out the lawsuit came after Judge Thomas Rice granted WSU’s request for summary judgment. Rolovich had also asked for partial summary judgment, which was denied.
In his decision, Rice rejected Rolovich’s claims of religious exemption.
“The record does not support Plaintiff’s claim of religious objection to the vaccination,” Rice said. “In the thousands of pages of discovery, Plaintiff does not invoke a religious objection to the vaccine.”
Rice also ruled WSU’s decision to terminate Rolovich did not violate the reasonable accommodations provisions of religious protections.
“Defendant asserts that Plaintiff’s accommodation request would have resulted in increased travel costs, harm to recruitment and fundraising efforts, and damage to WSU’s reputation and donor commitments, in addition to an increased risk of exposure of COVID-19 to student athletes, other coaching staff, the media and the public,” Rice said.
WSU also argued Rolovich’s continued employment would pose increased risk to WSU students and faculty. In his decision, Rice agreed with this argument.
“Defendant has shown that Plaintiff’s job as head football coach undisputedly required frequent interactions with students, coworkers, donors, the media, and others (hundreds of people),” Rice said. “This created an undue hardship for Defendant and no other possible accommodation would have negated that risk.”
Prior to Rice’s decision, Rolovich was hired by the University of California in December 2024 as the senior offensive assistant for the UC football program. Though UC has since relaxed their COVID-19 policies, UC had similar vaccine mandates for staff and faculty.
“For the safety and well-being of the entire university community, UC’s systemwide COVID-19 Vaccination policy requires, with few exceptions, that all students, faculty and staff be vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus, including getting booster shots,” said Rachael Nava, UC executive vice president and chief operating officer, in an announcement from January 2022.
At the time of Rolovich’s termination from WSU, UC vaccine policy mandated that all employees be fully vaccinated.
“In order to comply with the UC systemwide COVID-19 vaccination policy that was issued in July, all UC employees must be fully vaccinated prior to entering a UC facility,” said Nancy Pluzdrak, Office of the President human resources executive director, in an announcement from August 2021. “Note that employees may request an exception to the COVID-19 vaccine requirement based on a medical exemption, disability exception, pregnancy deferral or religious objection.”
Though exemptions were officially offered at both WSU and UC, Rolovich’s role and frequent contact with hundreds of people made such exemptions an unviable option.
