The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear, again, a challenge on religious grounds to Maine’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers. Without offering an explanation, the Court denied to hear a petition from nine “Jane Does” for a writ of certiorari.
The high court previously declined in October to hear an emergency challenge by the same plaintiffs, who were seeking to prevent Maine from enforcing the vaccine mandate. The women are represented by the national convervative religious organization Liberty Council.
Aug. 12, Gov. Janet Mills (D) announced an emergency rule requiring certain healthcare workers to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 29. According to the governor’s office, requiring immunizations of healthcare workers is nothing new, because doing so reduces “the risk of exposure to, and possible transmission of, vaccine-preventable diseases.” That emergency rule since has been replaced by a permanent rule that requires vaccinations for the healthcare workers, according to court records.
The requirement allows for medical exemptions, but it expressly excludes religious exemptions under a 2019 Maine law that eliminated religious exemptions from Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services immunization rules, including the healthcare worker immunization rule.
Only Maine, New York and Rhode Island do not provide exemptions from the COVID-19 vaccine for religious reasons.
“There can be no dispute that Maine is required to abide by the U.S. Constitution and federal law that provides protections to employers and employees who have sincerely held religious objections to the COVID-19 shots,” Mathew Staver, the founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, stated in a press release Tuesday.
“The Supreme Court should have righted this blatant unconstitutional edict. The Supreme Court has allowed these healthcare workers to become constitutional orphans in their own state,” he added.
State Attorney General Aaron Frey said in a written statement to news media that Maine’s vaccination rule is constitutional and remains in place. “We will continue to defend the rule, which is critical for the protection of patients, healthcare workers and Maine’s healthcare system against COVID-19,” he said.
