Posted on 10/29/2021 8:38:52 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected an emergency request by health care workers seeking a religious exemption to the state of Maine’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
The court’s decision not to grant the immediate relief for the health care workers until it decides to review the case, means the state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate will take effect while litigation continues in lower courts.
The Supreme Court did not explain its action—typical in emergency appeals. But three conservative-leaning justices provided a dissenting opinion saying they would have granted the emergency request.
Maine is not offering a religious exemption to its COVID-19 mandate in hospital and nursing homes, which means if workers opt to not take the vaccine, they risk losing their jobs. The deadline for health care workers to be vaccinated in the state was by the start of October, but the state government said it would not enforce the mandate until Friday.
“This case presents an important constitutional question, a serious error, and an irreparable injury. Where many other States have adopted religious exemptions, Maine has charted a different course,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in a dissenting opinion ( pdf ), joined by Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito.
“There, health care workers who have served on the front line of a pandemic for the last 18 months are now being fired and their practices shuttered,” he added. “All for adhering to their constitutionally protected religious beliefs. Their plight is worthy of our attention.”
Justice Amy Coney Barrett in a concurring opinion said that the court has “discretionary judgment” about whether to take up an emergency appeal, adding that she believes the case at hand, which is the first of its kind, would benefit from a full briefing.
“Were the standard otherwise, applicants could use the emergency docket to force the Court to give a merits preview in cases that it would be unlikely to take—and to do so on a short fuse without benefit of full briefing and oral argument,” she wrote in an opinion joined by Justice Brett Kavanaugh. “In my view, this discretionary consideration counsels against a grant of extraordinary relief in this case, which is the first to address the questions presented.”
Since 1989, Maine had required health care workers be vaccinated against various diseases. But state removed all non-medical exemptions, including religious exemptions, from mandated vaccines in 2019 because of falling vaccination rates. A referendum challenging the law in 2020 was rejected.
Lawyers for the health care workers who challenged the vaccine mandate in Maine argued that having no religious exemption was a violation of their right to free exercise of religion under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
They said their objection was in part because the vaccine was developed with the involvement of “fetal cell lines that originated in elective abortions.” While published data of the composition of the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines show no fetal cells, the companies used fetal cell lines in either the testing stages for production stages of their vaccines.
The Liberty Counsel, which filed the lawsuit, says it is representing more than 2,000 Maine health care workers, some of whom were fired from their jobs Friday. There are nine unnamed plaintiffs in the suit.
“The court’s decision not to grant the immediate relief for the health care workers until it decides to review the case...”
They didn’t make a decision not to grant relief, they didn’t make a decision at all and are forcing it back to lower courts by refusing to review the case at this time. In other words, they refused to take the case.
wy69
And once again, Kavanaugh and Coney Barrett disappoint.
No mention of traitor Benedict Roberts.
So only three of the nine supported the exemption. And there I though we had a 6-3 majority.
There was no ruling on the merits of the case.
Methinks we have been hoodwinked once again. But at least Garland didn’t make it.
This was an emergency appeal, asking the Supreme Ct. to jump in before the case had gone through the usual appeals process. The rejection of the appeal was a procedural ruling, saying the case needed to go through the appeals process. The court did not rule in favor of the vaccine mandate.
The Federalist Society has a motto saying in part ‘what the law says, not what it should say’. Well, sometimes that idea works in favor of conservatives and sometimes not. Again, the court didn’t say the vaccine mandate is legal, just that the usual legal process had to be followed.
Hurried, poorly structured law suit that needed to be properly prosecuted in the lower courts UNTO THE COMPLETION prior to elevating to SCOTUS.
There is no jumping to the head of the line unless it is a nation-wide grave situation (like the FL election fiasco with Gore-Bush). Actual litigation has lengthy processes and procedures that must be followed in order.
Proving once again we wasted effort and got played on Trump’s 3 nominees to SCOTUS. They are, at best, selectively Conservative. And just when you thought it was safe to wade back into the political waters...look out, the p3d0ph1l3 RINOs are back! I read an article over at Twitchy about their latest adventure, “REPORT: The Lincoln Project has spent $279,000 boosting Terry McAuliffe’s campaign this cycle”, so give that a look. So it wasn’t all about Trump as they claimed, they are out to get individual states too. Not to mention back stabber Pence going around making speeches like he didn’t betray us all. SMH!
We got played. No wonder McConnell was so eager to push them through...he knew!
5.5 to 3.5 on the best of days. Obama has something on Roberts, likely about his Irish adoption.
Standing AGAIN. Always with the standing. As if nobody has a right to bring a case any more. Especially on the election theft. Even Trump didn’t “have standing”.
There is no jumping to the head of the line unless it is a nation-wide grave situation (like the FL election fiasco with Gore-Bush). Actual litigation has lengthy processes and procedures that must be followed in order.
So those with a constitutionally protected right to religious freedom will now lose their jobs and not be able to collect unemployment for however many years this takes to wind its way through the staggering slow court system -- no doubt the delays are purposeful in order to force more people to comply. How many mortgage payments can you miss before the bank seizes your house? So at the end of 2 years when this gets resolved in favor of religious freedom (hopefully) what is the REMEDY for those who lost everything?
Do they disappoint?
Or does Deep State have them under house arrest and is threatening them?
Who the heck knows anymore.
But even if they are voting this way under duress, if we manage to restore the republic, every single Justice will have to resign.
They have all been compromised.
“And once again, Kavanaugh and Coney Barrett disappoint.”
While I don’t generally agree with the decisions on the SCOTUS as to which cases they take, I do agree with their withdraw from this one.
Throughout this melee of vaccine concerns, the feds have been over ruled by the states laws and the system is working as a it is supposed to. The decisions so far have been in the hands of the governors and the obvious mistakes are in abundance. Placing anything in the hands of the feds at this point is like running to mom and dad to make them responsible and literally “passing the buck.” It creates an automatic get out of jail free card for the states. Then while the feds will say the states broke it and we will fix it, fabricates the previously hidden, cloak and mirrors agenda of the left to create a path to more control over states laws that they denied Trump when he asked to help rather than created a legal bridge.
The feds should stay out of it. This is why the Constitution created this fail safe to keep local problems, local. And that the feds should not be making decisions on health and financial control with states.
An example is the public school system. Because the feds give, roughly, 3% nationwide, of the funds for schools they have created a total control of curriculum and rewriting the determination of a successful education. And by this they have created a long line of kids coming out of high school illiterate and unprepared to make decisions on their own behalf.
I believe this is why the liberals want to pack the court to do things like this. And they’ll do what they’ve been doing packing it with liberal leaning judges to forward their agendas. So what will happen will be the decisions the feds make will not be real smart, but they will be legal.
wy69
This decision seems to be following the same footsteps as the
earlier decision in which SCJ, John Roberts, turned the tables and upset the apple cart.
Knowing that this is going to be a YUGE issue, they will wait for a defining case to take and rule on.
Worst SC in History.
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