Zachary Stieber reports for Epoch Times…

A Colorado university's COVID-19 vaccine mandate violates the U.S. Constitution, a federal court has ruled.

The Sept. 1, 2021, mandate "clearly violates the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause as interpreted by our precedents," a majority of a U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit said in the May 7 decision.

While the mandate was later updated, the newer version also violates the Constitution, the judges said.

The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in 2021 required COVID-19 vaccination of all students and employees. It initially offered religious exemptions to anyone who checked a box, but later said administrators would "only recognize religious exemptions based on religious beliefs whose teachings are opposed to all immunizations."