WASHINGTON D.C. – Today, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review Liberty Counsel’s petition for writ of certiorari regarding Alicia Lowe, et al. v. Sara Gagne-Holmes, et al., where seven Maine health care workers were unlawfully denied religious accommodations and fired due to their religious beliefs during the state’s unconstitutional COVID-19 mandate. The High Court’s denial of the review was without any comment and is not a ruling on the merits. The pending issue was whether the repeal of Maine’s COVID shot mandate mooted the case.

The case was originally Alicia Lowe, et al., v. Janet Mills, but Maine Governor Janet Mills had been dismissed from the case and the state’s Acting Commissioner of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services Sara Gagne-Holmes became the primary defendant. 

In the petition for writ of certiorari, Liberty Counsel sought to reverse both the district court’s and appeals court’s dismissal of the case based on mootness following Maine’s repeal of the mandate. Following a prior ruling by the First Circuit Court of Appeals that reversed the lower court and allowed the case to proceed with discovery, Gov. Janet Mills rescinded the COVID shot mandate to avoid a trial.

In the petition, Liberty Counsel argued that Maine officials “suspiciously” rescinded the COVID shot mandate to “evade constitutional scrutiny” when the district court initially began probing the health care workers’ claims.  While the First Circuit disagreed believing the recission was due to the mandate no longer being needed, the other circuit courts have questioned similar recission timing as “suspicious,” and as potentially acting “in bad faith to avoid litigation risk.”

Though SCOTUS denied this petition, as well as previous petitions by Maine health care workers, Justice Neil Gorsuch indicated in 2021 that the High Court should review these types of cases.

In a prior iteration of this case, Justice Gorsuch wrote, “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. There, healthcare workers who have served on the front line of a pandemic for the last 18 months are now being fired and their practices shuttered. All for adhering to their constitutionally protected religious beliefs. Their plight is worthy of our attention.”

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “We are pleased that the unlawful COVID shot mandate has been rescinded. However, Gov. Janet Mills and her agencies should be held accountable in court for the harm this mandate inflicted on health care workers and the citizens of Maine.”

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