After requiring all of the disclosure of plaintiffs' identities because they "were preparing for trial" and he said names would be important for trial, Judge Jon Levy dismissed the complaint.

Judge Levy stated there can be no accommodation for the plaintiffs since they only asked for an exemption. However, there cannot be an accommodation without an exemption. He stated to grant an exemption under Title VII would violate state law, so it is an undue hardship. That statement turns the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution on its head. Judge Levy does not dispute that the complaint stated a claim, which is the standard for a motion to dismiss, but he stated it would create an undue hardship to grant an exemption.

The Free Exercise Clause does not allow for discrimination between religious accommodations and medical accommodations. However, Judge Levy claims that distinguishing between religious accommodation and medical accommodations is irrelevant because the state has different interests in the two. He claims that the risk is different between the two. However, that is contrary to recent Supreme Court precedent involving COVID restrictions on places of worship and many other Supreme Court decisions.

The dismissal order is critically flawed and will be appealed.

Liberty Counsel represents seven health care workers in Maine who have sincerely held religious beliefs that prevent them from accepting any of the COVID-19 injections because of the connections to aborted fetal cell lines and for other religious reasons that have been articulated to the defendants. Their lawsuit against Governor Janet Mills, health officials of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and five of the state's largest hospital systems, challenges the Maine law that requires employees of designated Maine health care facilities to be vaccinated against the COVID-19 shot.

Mills ordered employers to deny all religious exemptions and ignore the federal employment law known as Title VII that affords employees the right to request reasonable accommodation for their sincere religious beliefs.

Two media companies—MTM Acquisition, Inc. (Portland Press Herald, Maine Sunday Telegram, Kennebec Journal, and Morning Sentinel) and SJ Acquisition, Inc. (Sun Journal) sought to expose the identities of these health care workers. In fact, these media corporations waited until November 10, 2021, to move to intervene which proves that their "alleged injury" is purely farce due to the fact that the case was originally filed in August.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, "Maine is required to abide by federal law and the First Amendment and cannot summarily dismiss employees who have sincerely held religious objections to the COVID shots. No one should be faced with this unconscionable choice, especially the health care heroes who have served admirably for the entire duration of COVID- 19. These health care workers have already suffered irreparable harm by being forced to choose between their jobs and their sincerely held religious beliefs. Liberty Counsel will continue to fight this unlawful treatment."

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SOURCE Liberty Counsel

CONTACT: Mat Staver, 407-875-1776, Liberty@LC.org 

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