Mora v. NY State Unified Ct. Sys.

── Mora v. NY State Unified Ct. Sys. ── Case No.: 23-7231 Court: Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Date: March 30, 2026 Category: General 23-7231 Mora v. NY State Unified Ct. Sys. UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT SUMMARY ORDER RULINGS BY SUMMARY ORDER DO NOT HAVE PRECEDENTIAL EFFECT. CITATION TO A SUMMARY ORDER FILED ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2007, IS PERMITTED AND IS GOVERNED BY FEDERAL RULE OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE 32.1 AND THIS COURT’S LOCAL RULE 32.1.1. WHEN CITING A SUMMARY ORDER IN A DOCUMENT FILED WITH THIS COURT, A PARTY MUST CITE EITHER THE FEDERAL APPENDIX OR AN ELECTRONIC DATABASE (WITH THE NOTATION “SUMMARY ORDER”). A PARTY CITING TO A SUMMARY ORDER MUST SERVE A COPY OF IT ON ANY PARTY NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL. At a stated term of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, held at the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, 40 Foley Square, in the City of New York, on the 30th day of March, two thousand twenty-six. PRESENT: DENNY CHIN, SUSAN L. CARNEY, RICHARD J. SULLIVAN, Circuit Judges. _____________________________________ FRANK MORA, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. No. 23-7231 NEW YORK STATE UNIFIED COURT SYSTEM, OFFICE OF COURT ADMINISTRATION, ANNE MINIHAN, LAWRENCE MARKS, JUSTIN BARRY, ROSEMARY MARTINEZ-BURGES, JENNIFER DILALLO, SHAWN KERBY, KEITH MILLER, LINDA DUNLAP-MILLER, SCOTT MURPHY, MICHELLE SMITH, JOHN SULLIVAN, DAN WEITZ, NANCY BARRY, TAMIKO AMAKER, Defendants-Appellees. _____________________________________ For Plaintiff-Appellant: MICHAEL H. SUSSMAN, Sussman & Goldman, Goshen, NY. For the Individual Defendants KARTIK NARAM (Barbara D. Underwood, -Appellees: Solicitor General, Mark S. Grube, Senior Assistant Solicitor General, Anthony R. Raduazo, Assistant Solicitor General, on the brief), for Letitia James, Attorney General for the State of New York, New York, NY. For the Remaining Defendants MICHAEL SIUDZINSKI (David Nocenti, -Appellees: Robyn L. Rothman, on the brief), New York State Unified Court System, Office of Court Administration, New York, NY. Appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Vincent L. Briccetti, Judge). UPON DUE CONSIDERATION, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED that the September 19, 2023 judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED. Frank Mora, a city judge in Poughkeepsie, New York, appeals the dismissal of his second amended complaint against New York State’s Unified Court System (“UCS”), its Office of Court Administration (“OCA”), and various individuals 2 employed there on the grounds of mootness and failure to state a claim under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). In a nutshell, Mora alleges that Defendants denied his request for a religious exemption from UCS’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate, which resulted in his exclusion from entering the city courthouse where he typically presided. We assume the parties’ familiarity with the underlying facts, procedural history, and issues on appeal, to which we refer only as necessary to explain our decision. We review de novo a district court’s dismissal of a claim under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), “accepting the allegations in the complaint as true and drawing all reasonable inferences in favor of the plaintiff.” Palmer v. Amazon.