We recently reported to you the Second Circuit’s decision in our Connecticut religious exemption lawsuit, which upheld the district court’s refusal to strike down Connecticut’s repeal of the religious exemption to mandatory vaccinations for schoolchildren. Today we are proud to report that we have filed a petition to have the case reheard by the full panel of 13 judges on the Second Circuit (known as en banc review), as we strongly disagree with the majority decision issued by the 3-judge panel that heard the case last October.
We are grateful for the tremendous outpouring of support and input we received from nationally-renowned religious liberty organizations, attorneys, law professors, and law clerks. They recognize what we have been saying all along – that this lawsuit is extraordinarily important and has nationwide and far-reaching implications for the state of religious liberty in this country. We remain dedicated to seeing this case through to the United States Supreme Court if necessary, but we want to give the Second Circuit every opportunity to correct this decision before taking that final step.
As noted in our petition, “[t]he panel’s opinion endorses a public health state where the First Amendment does not constrain the state’s police power with respect to vaccination mandates so long as it contains a medical exemption. This holding contradicts Supreme Court precedent and creates a hopelessly confusing conflict among the Court’s precedents.”
Read the en banc petition here.
This case was fully funded by generous donors like you. If you would like to support our ongoing legal efforts and all of the other important work we do here at We The Patriots USA, please consider joining our “Commit to Ten” campaign today by signing up for a monthly donation of at least $10.