The panel reversed the district court’s dismissal for failure to state a claim of an employment discrimination action brought by Mimi Weiss under Title VII and California law against The Permanente Medical Group, Inc. (“TPMG”), and remanded.

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TPMG initially granted Weiss a religious exemption from its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for its employees. It later required Weiss to provide additional information so it could evaluate whether her beliefs were sincere. When she did not fully respond to the supplemental inquiry, TPMG revoked Weiss’s exemption and terminated her because she failed to get vaccinated.

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To state a prima facie case of failure to accommodate her religion under Title VII and California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act, the plaintiff must show that (1) she had a bona fide religious belief, the practice of which conflicted with an employment duty; (2) she informed her employer of the belief and conflict; and (3) the employer threatened her with or subjected her to discriminatory treatment, including discharge, because of her inability to fulfill the job requirements.

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The district court granted TPMG’s motion to dismiss on the ground that Weiss failed to satisfy the second element of the prima facie case—she did not adequately allege that she gave TPMG sufficient notice of the conflict between her beliefs and its vaccine mandate.

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Addressing the notice requirement, the panel held that the employee must provide only enough information about her religious needs to permit the employer to understand the existence of an actual conflict between those needs and the employer’s expectations. Applying this standard, the panel concluded that Weiss satisfied the second element of a prima facie case for purposes of the pleading stage because she plausibly alleged that she informed TPMG of her belief and its conflict with the vaccine mandate.

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The panel addressed a privacy claim in an accompanying memorandum disposition and dissent.

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https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2026/07/24/24-6609.pdf