The Thomas More Society celebrated a legal victory this week against the draconian COVID policy of the University of Colorado’s Anschutz School of Medicine. The following is Executive Vice President and Head of Litigation Peter Breen’s report with analysis and comment by me:
“In September 2021 campus bureaucrats at the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine adopted a vaccine policy which “allowed” for religious exemptions [as required by law] – but only for members of the “right” religions – and only after intense intrusive probing.
The University policy only allowed those who were members of a formal religion that teaches against all immunizations, like Christian Scientists [who actually leave it up to their practitioners to decide for themselves], to obtain an exemption. But it became clear that no exemptions would be offered to “Christians” or to those of almost any other faith.”
Comment: 1. One would have thought a “School of Medicine” would have known better . . . allegedly avowing the Hippocratic Oath and all. “The University of Colorado is one of only 38 U.S. public research institutions in the Association of American Universities (AAU), a group of institutions widely recognized as America’s leading research universities“! (wikipedia) – proving how universally (pardon the pun) coopted universities are into GroupThink by Big Brother. 2. Who is Breen to say “Christian Scientists” are not “Christians“? Many – perhaps Breen as well – say the same thing about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Breen should educate himself on other religions by going to their sources instead of listening to paid clergy for self-serving religious bias. Breen’s subtle differentiation smells of religious bias – a more real and insidious pandemic in America than COVID ever was. Breen’s judgment of Christian Scientists is as odorous as the University of Colorado’s panel of inquisitors.
“Meanwhile, the University gave secular medical exemption requests better treatment than religious requests – turning religious staff and students into second-class citizens.
To add insult to injury, the bureaucrats demanded that each exemption applicant extensively defend the validity of their sincere religious belief. This inquisition got so bad that one of our clients, a pediatrician [with] a master’s degree in Catholic Bioethics was told by the government that her well-documented and lengthy objection was not “sincere.
The University wouldn’t give any credence to the fact that the Catholic Bishops of Colorado had taken the side of religious liberty and issued their own exemption form for Catholics in that state! The defendants, 17 students and staff, were each threatened with firing or expulsion.
Comment: It’s interesting that a member of the Catholic church was subjected to the same type of persecution that the Catholic church invented and inflicted upon the non-Catholic population of Europe during 246 years of incredibly horrendous Inquisitions in the Middle Ages (see: Will and Ariel Durant‘s eleven volume The Story of Civilization). One may also legitimately argue that one enters dangerous waters when the ethics of biology are labeled with a religious dogma as opposed to universal moral standards. However, kudos to the Catholic church for using whatever influence they could to support their courageous members resisting the government’s monolithic COVID mania. Others churches should have joined in the fight and provided a united front against the government’s unprecedented, massive manipulation of the population – instead of passively rolling over belly up.
“…the District Court denied us…after three years the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled this week in favor of our clients. In a sweeping 55-page decision, the Court held that the University of Colorado clearly violated the [defendants] First Amendment’s religious liberty protections. . . . the Court ruled that the University not only violated our clients First Amendment rights, but also determined that the policy was “motivated by religious animus.” . . . that ruling will have far-reaching implications for religious liberty across the country. The Court strongly reaffirmed the bedrock First Amendment principle that government cannot test the sincerity of employees religious beliefs, and that it cannot give preference to secular exemptions.”
Comment: I celebrate the victory along with the defendants and The Thomas More Society attorneys. I have supported the Society for years and encourage others to do so as well.
However – comma – it is an ominous comment on our society that any American has to seek refuge in religion like medieval miscreants seeking shelter from prosecution in their local abbey. I have to wonder how many of those defendants actually attended church prior to the COVID oppression using religion as a crutch of convenience. But it’s none of my business nor the government’s. The surrealism of the entire COVID psychosis is that any citizen in any country in the world was faced with such a coercive decision in the first place. President Truman said “When any American is forced to shut his mouth and close his mind then all Americans are in trouble.” The totalitarian suppression of scientific evidence – and any rational opposition to the COVID oppression by our government – was a violation of almost all of our Bill of unalienable Rights.
The real victory will come when The Great Barrington Declaration litigators successfully prosecute those behind the greatest scam against humanity in the history of the world (see: The Great Barrington Declaration – Sign Up For Freedom! this site published 2020/10/07). I hope the Thomas More Society and others like them unite in that effort.
Go to: http://gbdeclaration.org/ to add your name to the millions fighting for freedom against oppressive Big Brother governments everywhere.
