https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/590141-supreme-court-rejects-bid-to-block-mask-mandate-on-airplanes

January 18, 2022 - 09:55 AM EST

Supreme Court rejects bid to block mask mandate on airplanes

The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a request to block a federal mask mandate for air travel. 

The emergency application was filed by a father on behalf of himself and his 4-year-old autistic son, both of whom claim to be medically incapable of wearing masks for extended periods.

Their request was filed to Justice Neil Gorsuch, who handles emergency applications arising in several Western states, and he referred the matter to the full court. 

The justices denied the request without comment or noted dissent.

Under an executive order signed by President Biden, the Transportation Security Administration requires passengers on airplanes and other public transportation to wear masks to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, which has killed more than 850,000 in the U.S. 

Joining the father-son challengers was another man, Lucas Wall, who has sought to raise money and publicity from his legal efforts targeting the federal transportation mask mandate. 

Chief Justice John Roberts last month unilaterally rejected a separate challenge filed by the group.  

The court’s move comes less than a week after the justices issued a split decision on another set of Biden administration pandemic mitigation measures. 

Last Thursday, the court voted 6-3 to block a vaccine-or-test mandate for large employers but voted 5-4 to maintain a vaccine mandate for health providers at federally funded facilities. 

SCOTUS - VICTORY WIN FOR CHRISTIAN AND 1st AMENDMENT WIN

 

https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/05/boston-violated-first-amendment-when-it-rejected-christian-flag-court-unanimously-rules/

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/supreme-court-boston-christian-flag-city-hall

Attorney Mathew Staver, representing Shurtleff, argued that the city's policy specifically used the phrase "public forum," which would indicate that the flags would be an expression of the private speech of the group that applied. Denying the application for describing the Christian flag, he argued, is "clearly viewpoint discrimination" that violates the First Amendment right to free speech.

Justices and both sides of the case agreed that it all comes down to whether the city's program of flying flags of third parties is private speech delivered in a public forum, or government speech.

You know, a city could not put a cross, in my view, on city hall," she said. "But in the context of a system where flags go up, flags go down, different people have different kinds of flags, then it is a violation of the free speech part of the First Amendment and not an Establishment Clause violation. 

The end."

SCOTUS to Hear Religious Liberty Case: Shurtleff v. City of Boston

January 10, 2022 - by vcyamerica - Leave a Comment

This is a very significant term for the U.S. Supreme Court.  They’ve already heard  oral arguments on a case that has the potential to overturn Roe v. Wade.  Another case deals with the Texas heartbeat law.  Last Friday they heard cases pertaining to vaccine mandates and next week, the case of Shurtleff v. City of Boston comes before the court.  

Appearing on Crosstalk to discuss this upcoming case was Mat Staver.  Mat is the founder & chairman of Liberty Counsel.  He’s a constitutional attorney with over 300 published legal opinions, has authored 8 scholarly law review publications and 10 books.  He’s also filed numerous briefs, argued in many federal and state courts and has also argued two landmark cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Next Tuesday, Mat will be presenting oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in a case known as Shurtleff v. City of Boston.  

Boston has a policy that states public forums are open to all applicants.  So for 12 years they’ve designated one of the flagpoles as a place of public forum so that people can temporarily raise a flag that dealt with their particular event.

SCAN BAR CODE FOR RADIO INTERVIEW WITH ATTORNEY MATT STAVER 

Camp Constitution filed an application for September of 2017 to honor Constitution Day as well as Citizenship Day which is a federally recognized day of celebration and honor.  They wanted to fly the Christian flag in recognition of the Christian community in Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with respect to the history and founding of the Constitution and the founding fathers.  However, Camp Constitution’s request to fly the flag for their 1 hour event at the base of the flagpole was denied, not because of the flag itself, but because of the word, “Christian”.  

If the city of Boston gets away with this, what else might they be able to do?  Get the answer to that question, hear commentary concerning other Supreme Court cases, and hear what listeners had to say, when you review this edition of Crosstalk.  

The Supreme Court on Thursday temporarily blocked the Biden administration's vaccine-or-test mandate for large employers, but allowed a vaccine mandate for health providers at facilities that receive federal funding to stand.

El Supremo de Estados Unidos establece que Biden no puede obligar a vacunarse o hacerse test a los empleados de grandes empresas

The Supreme Court on Thursday temporarily blocked the Biden administration's vaccine-or-test mandate for large employers, but allowed a vaccine mandate for health providers at facilities that receive federal funding to stand.   

• The high court ruled 6-3 against the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) employer mandate, blocking it from taking effect while other legal challenges play out.    

• The court ruled 5-4 to keep the health care worker mandate, with Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joining the more liberal Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.    

The Biden administration has argued that both policies are necessary in order to get as many people vaccinated against COVID-19 as possible. 

President Biden has indicated he is running out of patience with Americans who refuse to get vaccinated against the coronavirus and that the rules were meant to force the issue in order to make workplaces safer.  

While lower courts were split, the conservative Supreme Court majority ruled the employer vaccine-or-test mandate was an overreach. 

The justices said the challengers, a coalition of businesses and 27 Republican-led states, were likely to succeed on the merits.

2,000 Doctors and Nurses Ask Supreme Court to Stop COVID Vaccine Mandate

 

https://www.lifenews.com/

2,000 Doctors and Nurses Ask Supreme Court to Stop COVID Vaccine Mandate

National

  |  

Liberty Counsel

  |   Jan 11, 2022   |   6:17PM   |  

Washington, DC

Today, Liberty Counsel filed the reply brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case on behalf of more than 2,000 Maine health care workers against Governor Janet Mills, health officials of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and five of Maine’s largest hospital systems (MaineHealth, Genesis Healthcare of Maine, LLC, Genesis Healthcare, LLC, Northern Light Health Foundation, and MaineGeneral Health).

The state is ignoring federal law by removing religious exemptions and accommodations from unlawful COVID shot mandates for health care workers, many of whom have already been terminated from employment. In addition, these health care heroes cannot simply walk across the street to a different health care provider to obtain alternative employment. 

Governor Mills has created a situation where no religious objectors to the COVID shot can obtain employment in the state.

The Supreme Court needs to resolve the splits in the circuits and the lower courts. Only Maine, New York, and Rhode Island have state executive orders banning employers from even considering the sincere religious beliefs of employees. 

Governor Mills threatened to revoke the business license of any employer that granted an employee a religious exemption, thus ordering employers to disobey the federal law known as Title VII. However, states do not have the authority to order employers to disobey Title VII federal employment law that prohibits religious discrimination.

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All health care workers are protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act which does provide for religious exemptions and accommodations and requires that employers provide them. 

Furthermore, COVID shots cannot be mandatory under Title VII. Religious exemption requests for shot mandates must be accommodated when a reasonable accommodation exists without undue hardship to the employer. 

Many people hold sincere religious beliefs against taking any vaccines, or taking those derived from aborted fetal cell lines, or taking those sold by companies that profit from the sale of vaccines and other products derived from abortion.

Further, all health care workers in Maine that are employed by the state also have protection for the exercise of their sincerely held religious beliefs under the First Amendment. These employees do not shed their constitutional rights upon entering government employment. Maine law provides a long-established common law right to all individuals to refuse unwanted medical care.

Liberty Counsel filed an emergency IPA on October 18 asking the High Court for immediate relief for these health care workers until it decides to review this case. 

However, on October 29 the High Court denied immediate relief from Governor Mills’ unconstitutional edict that mandated all health care workers be fully “vaccinated” by October 29 or be terminated.

In the Supreme Court’s October 29 decision, Justice Gorsuch dissented from the denial along with Justice Thomas and Justice Alito. 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.”

And “attention” to this constitutional violation of Maine health care workers is precisely what Liberty Counsel is asking from the High Court.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The Supreme Court must put an end to these unconstitutional mandates and stop Governor Janet Mills from ignoring federal law and forcing health care workers to violate their sincerely held religious beliefs. There can be no dispute that Maine is required to abide by federal law that provides protections to employees who have sincerely held religious objections to the COVID-19 shots. It is time for the High Court to stop this unlawful mandate against all these health care workers who have become constitutional orphans in their own state.”

NYS GOV. HOCHUL PRIORITIZED COVID-19 TREATMENT FOR NON-WHITES

 

The guidance comes as New York State set a one-day record of 76,555 for positive COVID tests, fueled by the Omicron variant, with more than 41,000 of those cases coming from New York City, according to data compiled by the health department.

However, the agency's website does not detail the races of those infected.

Data from New York City's official site shows the vaccination rate of white people at 63 percent, compared with 75 percent for Latinos, 58 percent for black residents and an astronomical 97 percent for Asians.

The state's missive, titled 'COVID-19 Oral Antiviral Treatments Authorized and Severe Shortage of Oral Antiviral and Monoclonal Antibody Treatment Products,' sets out a list of eligibility requirements for two oral antiviral treatments that had been touted as 'available and lifesaving' by the organization in an October press release.

Churches Can Engage in Political Speech

 

Churches Can Engage in Political Speech

Sep 21, 2020

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The chairman of the Federal Election Commission recently reaffirmed that non-profits, including churches and religious leaders, can engage in political speech, endorse candidates and host them on church property. 

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/faith-and-freedom/id1170682408

FEC chair Trey Trainor referred to the executive order, “Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty,” signed by President Donald Trump on the National Day of Prayer, May 4, 2017. 

Trainor said, “One of the first things he did when he came into office in 2017 was issue an executive order to the Department of the Treasury, telling them that they could no longer enforce that provision of the law and that religious organizations needed to be treated the same as every other organization. The Johnson Amendment is still on the books, but with lack of enforcement authority by the executive agency, it’s a law that’s not going to be enforced.” 

The executive order states it could no longer enforce that provision of the law and that religious organizations needed to be treated the same as every other organization, declares that it is the policy of the administration to protect and vigorously promote religious liberty, directs the IRS to exercise maximum enforcement of discretion to alleviate the burden of the Johnson Amendment, and provides regulatory relief for religious objectors to Obamacare’s burdensome preventive services mandate.

“All executive departments and agencies shall, to the greatest extent practicable and to the extent permitted by law, respect and protect the freedom of persons and organizations to engage in religious and political speech,” the order reads.

 “In particular, the Secretary of the Treasury shall ensure, to the extent permitted by law, that the Department of the Treasury does not take any adverse action against any individual, house of worship, or other religious organization on the basis that such individual or organization speaks or has spoken about moral or political issues from a religious perspective.” 

President Trump specifically mentioned “the imposition of any tax or tax penalty,” as well as “the delay or denial of tax-exempt status; the disallowance of tax deductions for contributions made to entities exempted from taxation under section 501(c)(3) of title 26, United States Code; or any other action that makes unavailable or denies any tax deduction, exemption, credit, or benefit,” as going against his executive order. 

The Johnson Amendment, named for then-Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas and enacted into law in 1954, restricted tax-exempt organizations, including churches and religious organizations, from endorsing or opposing candidates for elected office. However, no church has ever lost its tax-exempt status for engaging in political speech. 

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, "We commend President Trump for protecting religious freedom. Pastors and churches should not be muzzled." 

"The Johnson Amendment has actually always been unconstitutional, and no church has ever lost its tax-exempt status for endorsing candidates that uphold biblical values. Its only purpose was to scare pastors into silence. However, churches cannot cower in fear to a non-existent bully and hide behind their nonprofit status. 

Elections are spiritual wars that threaten the Judeo-Christian foundation of America and Christians are called to be Lights in the culture," said Staver. 

Liberty Counsel provides broadcast quality TV interviews via Hi-Def Skype and LTN at no cost.