The First Amendment to the US Constitution enumerates some of our most cherished freedoms: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
It is no accident that the first freedom described is the freedom of religion. “Our country’s founders — who were of different religious backgrounds themselves — knew the best way to protect religious liberty was to keep the government out of religion…The Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment gives you the right to worship or not as you choose. The government can’t penalize you because of your religious beliefs.”
In its recent decision, Biden v. Missouri, the Supreme Court decided that the Secretary of Health and Human Services had the power, delegated to him by Congress, to require healthcare workers to submit to a Covid-19 vaccine. The court specifically noted that “the Secretary announced that, in order to receive Medicare and Medicaid funding, participating facilities must ensure that their staff—unless exempt for medical or religious reasons—are vaccinated against COVID–19.” (Emphasis added.)
In keeping with the First Amendment, the exemption for medical or religious reasons to the vaccine mandate is no small matter. In September of 2021, we examined the ability of private employers to require Covid-19 vaccines for their employees. We cited to “Dorit Reiss, a law professor at the University of California, Hastings, who specializes in legal and policy issues related to vaccines. Reiss said that if employees have medical reasons or sincerely held religious beliefs that prevent them from receiving a vaccine, employers may be required to give the workers a reasonable alternative to continue to work.”
We also noted the following: “Employers that encourage or require vaccinations…must comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other workplace laws, according to the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)…Title VII requires an employer to accommodate an employee’s sincerely held religious belief, practice or observance, unless it would cause an undue hardship on the business… (t)he definition of religion is broad and protects religious beliefs and practices that may be unfamiliar to the employer. Therefore, the employer ‘should ordinarily assume that an employee’s request for religious accommodation is based on a sincerely held religious belief,’ according to the EEOC. ‘ However, if an employee requests a religious accommodation, and an employer is aware of facts that provide an objective basis for questioning either the religious nature or the sincerity of a particular belief, practice or observance, the employer would be justified in requesting additional supporting information.”
As a Catholic himself, Joe Biden should know that many Catholics have a sincerely held objection to the Covid-19 vaccination. “While no covid-19 vaccine contains human tissue of any kind, the Johnson and Johnson vaccine’s manufacturing process used cell lines derived from elective abortions performed decades ago. Other vaccines being used in the US, such as those from Pfizer and Moderna, used these cell lines in testing their vaccines but not in production. This distinction led the archdiocese of New Orleans to call the Johnson and Johnson vaccine ‘morally compromised.’ The vaccine ‘should not be accepted by Catholics if other choices are available,’ agreed Pennsylvania bishop Alfred Schlert.” Further, “Jehovah’s Witnesses base their beliefs on the Bible, which they regard as the inspired, inerrant Word of God… In contrast to many Christian denominations, the Witnesses did not create their own healthcare institutions. According to the Watch Tower Society, they were not to operate hospitals and clinics; the world’s time was ‘too short.’ Clayton J. Woodworth, the editor of The Golden Age and Consolation magazines, was influential in this area: he regarded the American Medical Association as ‘an institution founded on ignorance, error, and superstition,’ denied the germ theory of disease, attacked the use of vaccination as a violation of God’s law, and regarded the use of aluminum cookware as dangerous to health…”
“The only Christian denominations who cite a theological reason for opposing vaccines are the Dutch Reformed Church and Church of Christ, Scientist,…Some members of the Dutch Reformed Church decline vaccines because it ‘interferes with divine providence,’ while others accept it as a gift from God…Denominations that believe in faith healing, or laying hands on people in order to heal their illnesses, also likely don’t believe in vaccines… Church of Christ, Scientist, teaches that prayer will alleviate and prevent disease, so members may request vaccine exemptions…”
Recently, the federal government has become interested in who asserts a religious objection to receiving the Covid-19 vaccine. As described by the Federalist, A federal agency debuted a new system on Tuesday designed to record and store the information of federal employees who requested religious exemptions from the Biden administration’s federal jab mandate…the Pretrial Services Agency for the District of Columbia, an independent federal agency designed to aid Washington D.C. courts, created the ‘Employee Religious Exception Request Information System’ to track unvaccinated employees who ask for religious exemptions from President Joe Biden’s federal COVID-19 shot mandate.”
What could be the purpose of such a list? According to the Federal Register, “The primary purpose of the secured electronic file repository is to collect, maintain, use, and—to the extent appropriate and necessary—disseminate employee religious exception request information collected by the Agency in the context of the federally mandated COVID-19 vaccination requirement… PSA will use the information in processing religious accommodation requests and to determine the appropriate health and safety protocols for employees in the context of the federally mandated COVID-19 vaccination.”
As noted by the Daily Signal, “In other words, the list will help the agency make a list. The announcement also does not say what the agency will do with this information after it has decided an employee’s religious accommodation request…What’s really going on with this announcement at this tiny agency? Likely, the Biden administration is using it to stealth test a policy it intends to roll out across the whole government.”
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One hint at the answer comes from the US Navy’s experience with both medical and religious exemption requests. As of November, 2021, “The Navy has not yet approved any religious exemptions for the COVID-19 (vaccine)…There were 2,531 requests for religious exemptions, according to the Navy. However, the Navy has not adjudicated all of the request(s)…Exemptions are being handled on a case by case basis…Some sailors have already found out if their request has been denied, while others are still waiting. Those who were denied a religious exemption now have five days, from when they were notified, to start the vaccination process or they face separation..The Navy also issued seven permanent medical exemptions, 400 temporary medical exemptions and 134 administrative exemptions, according to the Navy…six more medical exemptions (are) pending…”
Clearly, the Navy is not in any rush to give anyone their requested religious exemption any time soon. But a group of Navy SEALS who were denied their requested religious exemptions fought back; “Judge Reed O’Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas…granted an injunction against the Biden administration and the Department of Defense, preventing them from enforcing the vaccine mandate against any of the named service members who had applied for a religious exemption. O’Connor ruled that the blanket denial of their religious waiver requests amounted to a violation of the service members’ rights under the First Amendment…”
As the Court wrote in its opinion, “The Navy provides a religious accommodation process, but by all accounts, it is theater. The Navy has not granted a religious exemption to any vaccine in recent memory. It merely rubber stamps each denial. The Navy servicemembers in this case seek to vindicate the very freedoms they have sacrificed so much to protect. The COVID-19 pandemic provides the government no license to abrogate those freedoms. There is no COVID-19 exception to the First Amendment. There is no military exclusion from our Constitution…”
Having failed to stonewall religious exemption requests, the Biden Administration has turned to another, more subtle tactic – make a list of those who have offended them. What will Biden do with this new enemies list? Only time will tell. But who else do we know who made lists of their opponents?
“In 1934, Ivan Nosov appeared in a photo in Pravda, gazing rapt as his friend Joseph Stalin addressed the 17th Party Congress. In 1937, Stalin scribbled “za” (“I approve”) on a list condemning Nosov to death. Nosov is one of 44,500 names that appear in ‘Stalin’s Shooting Lists,’ a disk issued…by the human rights organization Memorial…Around 720,000 people were shot during Stalin’s purges of 1937 and 1938. Many were simply tried and summarily executed by ‘troikas’ (closed military tribunals) or other bodies run by the secret police. But around 44,000 had their sentences personally approved by Stalin and his closest henchmen. Stalin’s initials, scribbled in bright red pencil, appear on 357 lists.”
No one is seriously asserting that Biden is compiling an enemies list with the intention of having people who request a religious exemption shot. But consider also that such extreme measures are not necessary. Why have those who do not cooperate killed, when you can simply deny them employment?
Judge John Wilson served on the bench in New York City
Illustration: Pixabay