During the argument, the judges seemed favorable to Liberty Counsel’s case. In fact, at one point, Judge Lynch turned to the attorney for the state, Kimberly Patwardhan, and said, “You obviously have not been reading the U.S. Supreme Court precedent on this, or else you would not have filed your motion to dismiss.”  

If the First Circuit rules favorably, the case will return to the lower court for discovery. 

Their lawsuit against Governor 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. Governor 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. Governor Mills also threatened to revoke the licenses of all health care employers who fail to mandate the shot to their employees.