Liberty Counsel filed a reply brief in its appeal to the First Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of seven Maine healthcare workers who were fired after being unlawfully denied religious accommodations during the state’s unconstitutional COVID-19 mandate. The healthcare workers refused the experimental shot due to their sincerely held religious beliefs.
U.S. District Court Judge Jon Levy originally dismissed their religious accommodation case, but that decision was unanimously reversed by the state’s Court of Appeals. Maine then rescinded the COVID shot mandate but did not repeal the state law that continually prohibits state healthcare workers from ever requesting a religious accommodation for a mandated shot. Liberty Counsel is requesting the court allow the case to proceed to the discovery phase before advancing to trial.
In Alicia Lowe, et al., v. Janet Mills, Liberty Counsel represents the healthcare workers against Governor Janet Mills, Commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Services Jeanne M. Lambrew, and Director of Center for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Puthiery Va. In addition to the unconstitutional statute, Gov. Mills threatened to revoke the licenses of all healthcare employers who failed to mandate the experimental COVID-19 injection to their employees. As a result, these healthcare workers were terminated from their positions because they would not compromise their religious convictions over the COVID shot. Gov. Mills and the other defendants argue the case is moot due to the state having rescinded its mandate and that there is nothing harming the health care workers.
However, Liberty Counsel argues the case is not moot because Maine’s statute discriminating against sincerely held religious beliefs is still in place meaning the state will not recognize any religious accommodations regarding any future immunization mandate. While denying religious exemptions, the law permits non-religious medical exemptions. In addition, Gov. Mills and state health officials have already caused illegal harm to the health care workers by unlawfully denying their religious exemptions and firing them because of their religious beliefs. Maine’s law with no provision for religious exemptions remains in effect preventing the state from guaranteeing this will not happen again in the future.
Liberty Counsel seeks a permanent injunction against the statute and a court declaration that the state’s discriminatory treatment against religious accommodations is unconstitutional under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Summarily dismissing employees who have sincerely held religious objections to experimental COVID shots violates federal law. Maine’s mandates caused irreparable harm by forcing people to choose between their faith and their livelihood, and there needs to be a permanent injunction in place to prevent this from happening again in Maine.”
