Op-Ed: Don’t exempt religious objectors from vaccine mandates
3 years, 5 months ago

Op-Ed: Don’t exempt religious objectors from vaccine mandates

LA Times  

Policies requiring vaccination against COVID-19 need not include, and should not include, exceptions for those who have religious objections to vaccinations. employees who object to vaccination based on their sincerely-held religious belief, practice, or observance.” This is simply wrong as a matter of law. In terms of free exercise of religion under the 1st Amendment, the Supreme Court ruled more than 30 years ago in Employment Division vs. Smith that the Constitution does not require exceptions to general laws for religious beliefs. Indeed, a number of states, before COVID-19, created mandates for children to be vaccinated against other communicable diseases without making exemptions for religious beliefs. In the 1977 case Trans World Airlines vs. Hardison, the Supreme Court said that employers do not have to bear more than a “de minimus” cost in accommodating employees’ religious beliefs.

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History of this topic

States reconsider religious exemptions for vaccinations in child care
1 year, 1 month ago

States reconsider religious exemptions for vaccinations in child care

LA Times  

A vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella sits on a countertop at a pediatrics clinic in Greenbrae, Calif. So when officials at Montana’s health department revived a proposal that would allow people to claim religious exemptions from immunization requirements at child care facilities, Hutzenbiler was both dismayed and relieved. Mississippi began allowing such exemptions for schools and child care centers …

Federal appeals court upholds Connecticut law that eliminated religious vaccination exemption
1 year, 4 months ago

Federal appeals court upholds Connecticut law that eliminated religious vaccination exemption

Associated Press  

A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a 2021 Connecticut law that eliminated the state’s longstanding religious exemption from childhood immunization requirements for schools, colleges and day care facilities. “The legislature acted responsibly and well within its authority to protect the health of Connecticut families and stop the spread of preventable disease.” The plaintiffs, We the Patriots USA Inc. and …

Mississippi, under judge’s order, starts allowing religious exemptions for childhood vaccinations
1 year, 5 months ago

Mississippi, under judge’s order, starts allowing religious exemptions for childhood vaccinations

Associated Press  

— Mississippi is starting the court-ordered process of letting people cite religious beliefs to seek exemptions from state-mandated vaccinations that children must receive before attending day care or school. In April, U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden ordered Mississippi to join most other states in allowing religious exemptions from childhood vaccinations. Bentley wrote that Edney also does not agree with state …

Navy barred from acting against religious vaccine refusers
2 years, 8 months ago

Navy barred from acting against religious vaccine refusers

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Texas is barring the Navy from taking action for now against sailors who have objected to being vaccinated against COVID-19 on religious grounds. U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor had in January issued a preliminary injunction preventing the Navy from disciplining or discharging 35 sailors who sued over the Navy’s vaccine policy while their case …

Many faith leaders wary of religious exemptions for COVID-19 vaccine
2 years, 10 months ago

Many faith leaders wary of religious exemptions for COVID-19 vaccine

LA Times  

Pope Francis delivers the Angelus noon prayer from his studio window overlooking St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. Francis has defended COVID-19 vaccines as “the most reasonable solution to the pandemic.” By the thousands, Americans have been seeking religious exemptions in order to circumvent COVID-19 vaccine mandates, but generally they are doing so without the encouragement of major denominations and …

Online pastors, form letters: The cottage industry helping workers avoid vaccine mandates
2 years, 10 months ago

Online pastors, form letters: The cottage industry helping workers avoid vaccine mandates

LA Times  

The request arrived at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power in early September. Written in the first person, the statement asked for a vaccine waiver so “I am not forced to sin and stain my conscience.” The statement noted the employee’s concern with fetal cell lines, then added an idea the employee hadn’t mentioned: an objection to “any …

Mandating Vaccines: Actually The Way Forward?
3 years, 1 month ago

Mandating Vaccines: Actually The Way Forward?

Live Law  

Recently, the Meghalaya High Court held the Meghalaya Government's order of mandating vaccinations for vendors, taxi drivers and other business as unconstitutional. The aforesaid mandatory orders have sparked the question of what must gain precedence – the government's duty to protect the health of its citizens by getting everyone vaccinated or an individual's right to privacy, liberty and bodily autonomy …

New York tells SCOTUS to allow vaccine mandate for health care workers to remain on the books
3 years, 1 month ago

New York tells SCOTUS to allow vaccine mandate for health care workers to remain on the books

CNN  

CNN — New York Attorney General Letitia James urged the Supreme Court Wednesday to deny a request from a group of New York health care workers to block the state’s vaccine mandate, arguing that the emergency rule requiring vaccinations for certain health care workers is necessary to combat the spread of the virus, which can lead to a “vicious cycle …

Column: It’s time to close the religious vaccine objection loophole
3 years, 2 months ago

Column: It’s time to close the religious vaccine objection loophole

LA Times  

There’s something unquestionably alluring about claiming religious exemptions from government mandates and employer policies. Gen. Jeff Landry placed his authority behind religious exemptions in August, telling residents that “Louisiana law offers broad and robust protections for students’ and parents’ religious and philosophical objections to certain state public health policies. “The law doesn’t require a religious exemption to vaccination,” UC Berkeley …

Who can opt out of school COVID vaccine mandate? California lawmakers eye crackdown
3 years, 2 months ago

Who can opt out of school COVID vaccine mandate? California lawmakers eye crackdown

LA Times  

Gavin Newsom said last week that California would require students to be vaccinated against COVID-19, a critical caveat was tucked within the nation-leading announcement: Parents can opt their children out of inoculation based on personal beliefs. “And it’s why they should be removed for COVID-19.” Newsom announced Friday that the state would require students at all public and private schools …

Religious Exemptions for Vaccine Mandates Shouldn't Exist
3 years, 2 months ago

Religious Exemptions for Vaccine Mandates Shouldn't Exist

Wired  

Covid vaccine mandates are proliferating—and so, inevitably, are attempts to evade them by claiming a religious exemption. As the Supreme Court observed in 1879, “To permit this would be to make the professed doctrines of religious belief superior to the law of the land, and in effect to permit every citizen to become a law unto himself.” Congress can’t tell …

Editorial: Dump COVID vaccine religious exemptions. There is no Church of Moderna Disbelievers
3 years, 3 months ago

Editorial: Dump COVID vaccine religious exemptions. There is no Church of Moderna Disbelievers

LA Times  

What is a COVID-19 vaccine mandate worth if it includes exemptions for “sincerely held religious beliefs”? Given how large a loophole religious exemptions create, no one should be remotely surprised that thousands of Los Angeles employees are lining up to claim religious exemptions from the city’s vaccine requirement for its employees — a little more than 10% overall, but with …

Some faith leaders say no to endorsing vaccine exemptions
3 years, 3 months ago

Some faith leaders say no to endorsing vaccine exemptions

The Independent  

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Leaders of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America said …

Opinion: What vaccine advocates need to understand about religious exemptions
3 years, 3 months ago

Opinion: What vaccine advocates need to understand about religious exemptions

CNN  

Editor’s Note: Nicole Hemmer is an associate research scholar at Columbia University with the Obama Presidency Oral History Project and the author of “Messengers of the Right: Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politics.” She co-hosts the history podcasts “Past Present” and “This Day in Esoteric Political History” and is co-producer of the podcast “Welcome To Your Fantasy.” The …

Thousands of LAPD employees plan to seek exemptions to COVID-19 vaccine mandate
3 years, 3 months ago

Thousands of LAPD employees plan to seek exemptions to COVID-19 vaccine mandate

LA Times  

Officers were on hand Aug. 14 in downtown Los Angeles, when vaccination opponents and counter-protesters faced off in front of LAPD headquarters. Thousands of Los Angeles Police Department employees plan to seek exemptions to rules requiring city workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19, according to figures released Tuesday by city officials. In his statement, Garcetti added, “This policy allows for …

‘Religious’ exemptions add legal thorns to looming vaccination mandates
3 years, 3 months ago

‘Religious’ exemptions add legal thorns to looming vaccination mandates

LA Times  

Teachers and others rally against COVID-19 vaccination mandates in August in New York. But it’s going to be quite hard in the current climate — in a mass health crisis, with a vaccine in place that works — to just let any such religious claims go.” Indeed, while pop-up anti-vaccine churches have long offered reluctant parents ways to exempt their …

Op-Ed: The next threat on the horizon: Religious exemptions from vaccine mandates
3 years, 3 months ago

Op-Ed: The next threat on the horizon: Religious exemptions from vaccine mandates

LA Times  

Hundreds of protesters rally against vaccination mandates outside of the Michigan State Capitol on Aug. 6, in Lansing, Mich. I have recently thought of her, as colleagues at hospitals, universities and other employers around the country report they are becoming deluged with requests for religious exemptions to new vaccine mandates. Even Christian Scientists tell members to “respect” public health officials …

Religious groups eye legal challenges to Delta variant restrictions
3 years, 4 months ago

Religious groups eye legal challenges to Delta variant restrictions

CNN  

CNN — The spread of the Delta variant has rekindled a debate that raged in the Supreme Court last term as houses of worship charged that state Covid-related restrictions were violating their religious liberty rights. “The Delta variant increases the urgency for the Supreme Court to permanently quarantine governors from imposing discriminatory restrictions on churches and places,” Staver said in …

Vaccine requirements for Covid-19 are legal in many circumstances
3 years, 4 months ago

Vaccine requirements for Covid-19 are legal in many circumstances

CNN  

CNN — For those who are refusing to get the Covid-19 vaccine, there are a lot of legal ways for public and private actors to make that decision painful. “That case is a real problem for vaccine mandate skeptics,” said Nicholas Bagley, a University of Michigan law professor who specializes in administrative and health care law. “One of the reasons, …

Can employers force workers to get vaccinated? Here’s what we know
3 years, 4 months ago

Can employers force workers to get vaccinated? Here’s what we know

LA Times  

Nursing student Joanna Aguilar administers a COVID-19 vaccination at the Providence Wellness and Activity Center in L.A.’s Wilmington neighborhood on July 17. California officials said Monday that state employees and healthcare workers would soon be required to show proof they’ve been vaccinated or undergo regular testing. In New Mexico, a federal judge declined to immediately block a COVID-19 vaccination requirement …

Momentum grows for closing gaps in US vaccine requirements
3 years, 7 months ago

Momentum grows for closing gaps in US vaccine requirements

Associated Press  

HARTFORD, Conn. — A law adopted this week in Connecticut adds momentum to the push to strengthen vaccination requirements for schoolchildren, but efforts to give families more leeway are brewing in statehouses around the country in debates that go back more than a century. Religious exemptions like the one eliminated by Connecticut’s new law are facing particular scrutiny amid fears …

Connecticut ends its state religious vaccine exemption
3 years, 7 months ago

Connecticut ends its state religious vaccine exemption

Associated Press  

Connecticut will no longer allow a religious exemption from childhood immunization requirements for schools, colleges and day care facilities, becoming the sixth state to end that policy. He called it “far more chilling” to tell a parent how to raise their child than to expose other children to a “nominal risk” of infection, given the state’s high, overall vaccination rate. …

Bill ending religious vaccine exemption now heads to Senate
3 years, 8 months ago

Bill ending religious vaccine exemption now heads to Senate

Associated Press  

A contentious bill that would end Connecticut’s long-standing religious exemption from immunization requirements for schools, beginning with the 2022-23 school year, now awaits action in the state Senate. We do not know when community immunity might be compromised,” said Democratic House Majority Leader Jason Rojas of East Hartford, who compared the situation to the early days of the coronavirus pandemic …

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