( September 15, 2026, 1:49 PM EDT) -- SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a California federal judge’s judgment for six former employees of a state transit agency who were awarded more than $1 million each by a jury for the agency’s failure to accommodate their religious objections to a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, holding that the agency was not entitled to judgment as a matter of law or a new trial because it did not carry its burden of showing that the religious objections could not be accommodated without undue hardship....