In an order that drew a sharply worded dissent by Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to block New York’s COVID-19 vaccination requirement, which allows exemptions for medical but not religious reasons.

Gorsuch said the ruling violates the plaintiffs’ religious liberty rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.

“The Free Exercise Clause protects not only the right to hold unpopular religious beliefs inwardly and secretly. It protects the right to live out those beliefs publicly in ‘the performance of (or abstention from) physical acts,’” Gorsuch wrote in his 14-page dissent.