Michael Turner, MD

Panel: Public Employer Mandates

Matt Connor was appointed as a firefighter to the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) in 2005, and promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in 2020, primarily serving neighborhoods in the borough of Brooklyn, where he resides. Matt received his BS from the University of Delaware in 2004; in 2021, his graduate study at the City University of New York was interrupted by the “Key to NYC” vaccine mandate, and several months later he was placed on involuntary unpaid leave by the FDNY for refusing to comply with the workplace mandate on NYC public employees.  After the historic march of twenty thousand New Yorkers over the Brooklyn Bridge in protest of the mandates, Matt joined Bravest For Choice, serving on the legal team that organized Garland v. FDNY litigation asserting due process rights in federal court, and New Yorkers For Religious Liberty v. City of New York, which stands for constitutional religious liberty and garnered the support of Alliance Defending Freedom as co-counsel.  Matt is also a plaintiff and member of the proposed class in these respective cases.  In January 2022, Matt helped organize Bravest For Choice’s participation in Defeat The Mandates, Washington, D.C. joining firefighters from across the nation, a collaboration which resulted in the formation of the National Coalition of Frontline Workers. As a founding Trustee for NCFW, Matt, along with the NCFW board advocated for legal resources to challenge the workplace mandates in New York City.  With expert legal assistance by Siri & Glimstaad, LLP, Matt, along with a dozen other firefighters and fire officers, successfully advocated for medical exemptions to the employer mandate and returned to work after enduring eleven months of leave without pay.