Amish & LGBTQ cases set stage for our NY religious discrimination case 

The US Supreme Court’s latest actions bode well for the FULL restoration of religious freedom

Last Monday, the fight for religious freedom had a massive win from the highest court in our land, and it bodes well that our case, Does v. NY Gov. Kathy Hochul, will be taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Beginning in 1966, New York state law allowed religious exemptions for vaccines. But in 2019, NY voided that law by repealing the formerly state-guaranteed right to religious accommodation. 

With the state religious exemption gone, and with a COVID club, Gov. Hochul then came after the Amish and the health care workers with a vengeance.

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Gov. Hochul forced New York health care employers and employees to violate their religious beliefs, fining and shutting down any business that refused to violate long-standing state and federal laws for religious accommodation. 

Employees were ordered to be fired, and employers would be fined and lose their business licenses if they refused to give up their right to a religious exemption from the COVID shots. 

In the case Miller v. McDonald, Hochul shut down the Old Order Amish schools — which were private schools, on private land, populated only by Amish students and teachers — and levied massive fines for the Amish families’ refusal to abandon their right to reject a shot.  

The Amish sued. Shockingly, the federal district court in New York and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Hochul’s unconstitutional actions.

But last week, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively said, “Not so fast,” and delivered a mighty blow to Hochul and her totalitarian crew.

The High Court remanded the Amish case to the Appeals Court, ordering the lower court to “reconsider” its ruling in light of the High Court’s recent decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor.

Now, you might be wondering what a case about LGBTQ indoctrination in public schools (the Mahmoud case) has to do with shot mandates. The answer lies in religious freedom rights.

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As the High Court said in Mahmoud, “the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment protects the ability of those who hold religious beliefs of all kinds to live out their faiths in daily life.”

The fact that the High Court referenced Mahmoud in remanding the case to the lower court shows that SCOTUS does not consider Mahmoud to merely be about parental religious freedom rights in public schools but is upholding religious freedom rights for ALL Americans everywhere.

One of our clients, the Pinecrest Adult Nursing facility operated for 50 years as a Christian rest home. Staff and patients alike chose Pinecrest specifically because of their Christian mission and witness. Pinecrest’s board and management refused to violate federal law and force their staff to take a shot that their religion forbids. But neither could Pinecrest afford to pay Hochul’s bankrupting 1,000 dollars per employee per day fines for obeying federal law. So, Pinecrest was forced to close, its employees left jobless and its patients left scrambling for a place to live.

I am greatly encouraged by the High Court’s actions in Miller, because it bodes very well for our case.

In addition to the Miller ruling, the High Court has also asked the U.S. solicitor general to weigh in on our case — a sure sign that SCOTUS is interested in our case — and based on the Court’s recent rulings, I believe we have an excellent chance of winning.

In our 36-year history, Liberty Counsel has won 40 cases we have argued or briefed before the U.S. Supreme Court and thousands more in the lower courts. And we are not done winning yet!

But we need YOUR HELP to fund this case until we win back religious freedom rights for all Americans. Thankfully a special Year-End Challenge Grant has been established to DOUBLE the impact of every gift made by midnight, December 31.  Help us restore religious freedom rights with your gift today!