This morning, Liberty Counsel will present oral argument to the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Alicia Lowe, et al., v. Janet Mills on behalf of seven Maine health care workers who were unlawfully denied religious accommodations and fired during the state’s unconstitutional COVID-19 mandate. The health care workers refused the experimental shot due to their sincerely held religious beliefs. Liberty Counsel will request that the appeals court overturn a lower court’s dismissal and allow the case to proceed to the discovery phase before advancing to trial because there is no guarantee from the state that similar actions will not occur in the future.
This is the second time Maine’s healthcare workers’ religious exemption case has reached the appeals court level. Initially, U.S. District Court Judge Jon Levy dismissed the case, but that decision was unanimously reversed by the appeals court. The appeals court sent the case back to the District Court to proceed with discovery. During this time, Maine rescinded the COVID shot mandate but did not repeal the state law that continually prohibits state healthcare workers from ever requesting a religious accommodation for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. However, Judge Levy dismissed the case again, this time as moot due to the state having rescinded its mandate.
In this second appeal, 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 meaning there is nothing stopping the state from doing these unlawful actions again.
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.
In the case, 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 since there is nothing currently harming the health care workers.
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Terminating 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.”
