( July 22, 2026, 11:47 AM EDT) -- NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel vacated a New York federal judge’s partial summary judgment ruling in favor of a court employee on a Title VII claim seeking a religious accommodation from her employer’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, holding that the judge failed to apply the prima facie standard established in EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc. and remanding for further proceedings with additional instructions to reconsider the significance of discovery evidence....