ABC Defeats COVID-19 Vaccine Suit From Fired ‘General Hospital’ Star Ingo Rademacher

Winston Cho
·4 min read
148
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

ABC has defeated a lawsuit from Ingo Rademacher over his dismissal from General Hospital for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

In December 2021, the actor sued the network, claiming it refused to accommodate his religious objections. In an order granting summary judgment, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stephen Goorvitch sided with ABC, which argued that Rademacher’s opposition to the vaccine was grounded in health reasons rather than his religious beliefs. Goorvitch had taken dueling motions under submission after an April 5 hearing and on Monday issued a brief order granting Disney’s and denying Rademacher’s but has not yet issued a detailed ruling.

More from The Hollywood Reporter

ABC was among several studios that implemented vaccine mandates. The return-to-work protocols agreed upon by Hollywood’s guilds and studios said that vaccines could be required for those working in “Zone A” of a production — typically a project’s main actors as well as key crewmembers who work closely with them in the highest-risk areas of the set. Studios have backed away from blanket mandates, with Disney in November joining Netflix and Paramount in moving away from uniform policies.

Rademacher sued ABC after he was fired from the show, saying the network didn’t have the authority to force the vaccine on its employees and that he was unfairly denied a religious exemption. He claimed medical condition and religious discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination and violations of his right to privacy, among other claims.

Moving to dismiss the case in December, ABC argued in a motion for summary judgment that parent company Disney thoroughly vetted requests for exemptions on a case-by-case basis. Rademacher said he was entitled to a religious exemption based on his “moral belief that my body is endowed by my creator with natural processes to protect me and that its natural integrity cannot ethically be violated by the administration of artificially created copies of genetic material, foreign to nature and experimental,” according to an amended complaint citing his request. ABC argued that Rademacher’s opposition to getting the vaccine was “rooted in health or efficacy concerns” rather than his religious beliefs.

“Rademacher’s testimony confirms his ‘religion’ is not comprehensive in nature, but focused instead on the issue of not altering one’s/his immune system and ‘do[ing] the right thing’ or simply being a ‘good person,'” wrote ABC’s lawyer Steven Marenberg in the network’s opposition to the actor’s motion for summary adjudication.

ABC stressed that Rademacher’s religion is devoid of any of the formal signs of most religious institutions. “Specifically, Rademacher testified that his religion lacks: (i) important writings such as creeds, tenets, precepts, parables, commandments, prayers, scriptures, etc.; (ii) gathering places such as churches; (iii) keepers of knowledge such as clergy; (iv) ceremonies/rituals that are imbued with transcendent significance; (v) structure or organization such as a hierarchy of leaders; and (vi) propagation of beliefs (i.e., missionaries, proselytizing, etc.),” the filing states.

While Rademacher cited a book called The Revelation of Ramala, ABC questioned the sincerity of his belief in the text since he said that he last read it 30 years ago and no longer possessed a copy.

It appears that Goorvitch wasn’t swayed by arguments from Rademacher that ABC had a duty to accommodate his religious beliefs, no matter how unconventional they may seem. While he conceded that he doesn’t belong to an organized religion or attend church services, he said that he “[does] not have to do those things” to qualify for a religious exemption. In Friedman v. Southern California Permanente Medical Group, the court ruled that state law “point[s] away from a strictly theistic definition of religion” and that “belief in a Supreme Being is not required,” the actor said.

“Mr. Rademacher’s beliefs qualify,” argued Scott Street, Rademacher’s lawyer. “He did not pull the beliefs out of thin air last year, simply to qualify for a religious accommodation to Disney’s Covid vaccine policy. As a young man, he struggled to identify with organized religions and through a book called The Revelation of Ramal [sic] (a copy of which he produced during discovery), he developed his own, direct relationship with God.”

Disney and ABC didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. They were also sued by two former General Hospital crewmembers, who were fired for refusing the COVID-19 vaccination. Rademacher’s legal team included Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic who in April announced his 2024 presidential bid.

In another suit from an actor challenging his termination after being refused a vaccine exemption, a federal judge in November dismissed some claims from Rockmond Dunbar. U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee ruled that producers Disney and 20th Television don’t have to face a disparate impact claim, which accused them of advancing a vaccination policy discriminating against followers of the Church of Universal Wisdom. They still face several other claims.

Best of The Hollywood Reporter

Click here to read the full article.