The Mayo Clinic, which operates hospitals in Minnesota, Arizona and Florida, violated federal law when it refused to grant a security guard’s request for a reasonable religious accommodation to its mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy, and instead threatened to fire the employee, effectively forcing him to receive the vaccine and violate his conscience and religious beliefs to save his job, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit. According to the EEOC’s suit, the employee requested an accommodation to Mayo’s vaccination policy because he was opposed to getting the COVID-19 vaccine based on his religious beliefs. The employee, a security guard in a non-medical role, explained the basis of his religious beliefs, and offered that he would be willing to receive tests for COVID-19 and to wear a mask. However, the employer rejected his request for a religious accommodation because it did not believe the employee’s religious beliefs were sincere. Faced with termination, the employee submitted to the vaccination policy in order to avoid being fired, the EEOC said.