( February 3, 2025, 1:35 PM EST) -- SAN FRANCISCO — Former employees of a state transit agency on Jan. 31 filed a notice of cross-appeal to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals seeking review of a California federal court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the agency on the employees’ First Amendment free exercise claim, as well as the court’s final pretrial order, after a jury awarded the employees more than $1 million each for the agency’s failure to accommodate their religious objections to being vaccinated for COVID-19....