U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer has ordered Gov. Janet Mills, health officials of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention and five of Maine’s largest hospital systems to respond by Monday, Oct. 25, to Liberty Counsel’s request for immediate relief for health care workers until it decides to review the case.
Liberty Counsel will also file the petition for writ of certiorari on behalf of more than 2,000 Maine health care workers, asking the high court to review the case since there is now a split in the circuits, with the 1st Circuit (governing Maine) denying injunctive relief and the 2nd Circuit (governing New York), granting injunctive relief regarding virtually identical factual and legal issues.
The governors of both states issued executive orders mandating that all health care workers get the COVID shots. They further stated that there would be no religious exemptions considered, even though federal law protecting the sincerely held religious beliefs of employees preempts state law.
Gov. Mills has threatened to revoke the licenses of all health care employers who fail to mandate that all employees receive the COVID-19 injection, despite the unconstitutional fact that she is discriminating against religious employees who decline vaccination while favoring those who decline for secular, medical reasons. The governor originally stated health care workers must receive a COVID-19 injection by Oct. 1 and then extended the deadline for compliance to Oct. 29. However, this required that plaintiffs had to accept the first injection that violates their sincerely held religious beliefs by no later than Friday, Oct. 15, 2021.
Liberty Counsel founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “We are pleased that the state of Maine has been ordered to respond to our emergency request for relief on behalf of over 2,000 health care workers. Gov. Janet Mills cannot nullify federal law and the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.” {eoa}
This article originally appeared atlc.org.
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