Religious groups sue NYC mayor over city’s vaccine passport requirement
By isabelle // 2022-02-16
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Roman Catholic and Orthodox Jewish families have joined forces in New York to file a federal lawsuit against the city's mayor, Eric Adams, over NYC's vaccine passport program, which they say creates a two-tiered society within the city. The vaccine passport was put into place by former mayor Bill de Blasio, whose Key to NYC policy dictates that everyone aged five and older must present proof of vaccination before they can enter most NYC establishments. It's an absurdly strict program that does not provide any religious or medical exemptions and imposes steep fines on ordinary people who violate the mandate while looking the other way when visiting celebrities and pro athletes fail to comply. When he announced the policy last August, de Blasio said: “If you want to participate in our society fully, you’ve got to get vaccinated.” When Adams took office on January 1, he vowed to uphold the policy, which was broadened in December from only applying to those aged 12 and older to include those aged five to 11, who must show proof of one vaccine dose to enter the impacted venues. The new lawsuit contends that this policy is a violation of the 1st, 5th and 14th amendments and is an “unprecedented abuse of power.” In other words, it is violating people’s rights to due process, privacy, freedom of assembly, free exercise of religion and equal protection. A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Christopher Ferrara said: “Never in the history of this country, nor in the history of pandemics generally, has any government declared an entire class of citizens personae non gratae based on refusal to be vaccinated, much less with vaccines now known to be ineffective at preventing transmission of a communicable disease and to be unnecessary for children, who have an infinitesimal risk of death from COVID-19.” The lawsuit involves 18 plaintiffs, three of which are participating on behalf of their minor children. They are unwilling to get the vaccine due to the use of aborted fetal cells in developing the jabs as well as other religious objections. One of the plaintiffs escaped from the Soviet Union to what he believed was the free city of New York only to be kicked out of the Javits Convention Center because he was unable to show his papers. A press release about the suit points out how religious objectors to the vaccine are being treated unfairly, stating: “Millions of the vaccinated are allowed to spread the virus, but a few religious objectors to vaccination are virtually ghettoized. The only purpose of this tyrannical regime is vindictive punishment of the unvaccinated by depriving them of numerous aspects of social life.” Perhaps even more importantly, however, the suit points out that the NYC policy is based on an entirely faulty claim that vaccines limit the spread of the virus. It is now painfully clear that they are not working as intended and getting vaccinated does not help those around you.

Lawsuit may not be successful

One can only hope that their efforts are successful, but the city’s mandates have already held up in several other court cases. One Brooklyn judge rejected a claim of racial bias and said the mandate can stand, while a Manhattan judge in a different case filed by teachers in the city who wanted religious and medical exemptions for vaccine requirements also upheld the mandate. Another case is currently underway in which a Staten Island law firm is working on a class action suit on behalf of private sector employees who want to put an end to the unfair private sector mandate. Sources for this article include: TheNewAmerican.com TimesOfIsrael.com
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