A Minnesota woman who objected to the COVID-19 vaccine on religious grounds can be denied unemployment benefits, the Court of Appeals ruled Monday.

Tina Goede worked as an account sales manager at AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals until April 2022, when she was fired after being denied a religious exemption to the company’s COVID-19 vaccine policy.

The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) rejected her application for unemployment benefits, a decision an unemployment law judge later upheld. However, DEED, a respondent in the case, later joined the Upper Midwest Law Center in asking the Court of Appeals to reverse the decision.