Two groups of public school teachers who were denied religious exemptions to the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate may be able to at least temporarily avoid a deadline that could lead to their firing next month, attorneys said during appellate arguments on Wednesday.

Judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said they would consider an order to possibly halt a provision of the mandate for 15 individual plaintiffs until a merits panel could hear the teachers’ appeal in about two to three weeks.