The Informed Consent Action Network has secured a significant win for Frist Amendment Religious exemptions to state-mandated vaccines for kids.” [A] federal court has ruled that … the State of Mississippi afford its residents a religious exemption for their children to attend school without one or more state-mandated vaccines!”
I know you probably don’t live in Mississippi, but in the weird world of constitutional rights, it has the potential to provide aid and comfort to those in the five states that do not allow religious exemptions from state vaccine mandates, including states that had them but reversed them in recent few years; Connecticut (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 10-204a), Maine (Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 20-A § 6355), and New York (N.Y. Pub. Health Law § 2164).
Note that many states with religious exemptions do not allow personal or philosophical exemptions from their vaccine schedules, so that’s an issue. But to the matter at hand,
From and after July 15, 2023, Defendants Daniel P. Edney, in his official capacity as the State Health Officer … their officers, agents, servants, and employees, and anyone acting in active concert or participation with them will be enjoined from enforcing Mississippi Code § 41-23-37 [Mississippi’s compulsory school vaccination law] unless they provide an option for individuals to request a religious exemption from the vaccine requirement.
A federal court has recognized religious rights in the Frist Amendment. Yes, I feel stupid having to write that. As if we need the court’s permission to exercise a right with more legal power than any government body is permitted. But then, the Mississippi Constitution does not protect, whereas the US Constitution does.
Section 18 of the Mississippi State Constitution is murky on the matter of faith-based exemptions in matters of public health.
SECTION 18. Freedom of religion.
No religious test as a qualification for office shall be required; and no preference shall be given by law to any religious sect or mode of worship; but the free enjoyment of all religious sentiments and the different modes of worship shall be held sacred. The rights hereby secured shall not be construed to justify acts of licentiousness injurious to morals or dangerous to the peace and safety of the state, or to exclude the Holy Bible from use in any public school of this state.
The ‘safety of the state’ clause, for lack of a better term, is likely the vehicle by which Mississippi involved a mandate above and beyond matters of conscience, religious or personal. A siren song with which we are all familiar. The COVID Karens, Vaxasaurs, and tin-pot pandemic dictators were all in on non-stop do-it for the community messaging. Public Health Communitarians, many of whom were not so concerned when certain communities burned, looted, and took lives in their communities because, as with the pandemic and the alleged cure, politics always comes before people.
If we were to bind a book of denied religious exemptions, it would be thicker than the average Congressional omnibus bill. The default position of people in power was and is to abuse it. The past three years proved it with few or rare exceptions. So, while this little ruling by a local federal court in one state is a win we might dismiss, it is also a breeze that could signal a storm.
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