Free Republic

Score another victory for religious freedom! A federal judge issued a ruling in favor of a farmer in East Lansing, Michigan, who was excluded from a public farmer's market because of his Christian beliefs. It turns out that at least some government officials see that the city's rotten actions are violating civil liberties in the name of diversity.The conflict started in 2017 when the city's government decided that the biggest drama in the farmer's market wasn't the price of tomatoes but the fact that Stephen Tennes, owner of Country Mill Farms, has religious beliefs that the city deemed unacceptable. The...

University permanently barred from enforcing vaccine mandate and will have to pay legal fees of four female, Christian student-athletes.Western Michigan University is permanently barred from enforcing its COVID-19 vaccine mandate against student athletes and will pay nearly $35,000 in legal fees under a consent judgment issued Nov. 16 by U.S. District Judge Paul L. Maloney in Kalamazoo, Mich. Under an agreement signed by attorneys for the athletes and the university, Western Michigan agreed that the preliminary injunction upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit will be made permanent, ending the lawsuit brought Aug. 30 by two...

A federal court has sided with college athletes seeking a religious exemption from a university’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, preventing the school from enforcing the mandate against the plaintiffs. A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit sided with a group of 16 student-athletes at Western Michigan University, upholding a lower court decision finding that the school violated their First Amendment rights by denying their requests for religious exemptions from the requirement that all student-athletes take the coronavirus vaccine. The decision noted that “in some cases, the university denied the student-athlete’s application” for a religious exemption...

Sixteen unvaccinated athletes won another round in their legal battle to play sports, despite Western Michigan University’s mandate that all of its inter-collegiate athletes get the COVID-19 vaccination shot. In a unanimous published decision issued Oct. 7, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati, Ohio, held that the university violated the athletes’ First Amendment rights. All 16 athletes had filed for religious exemptions, which, according to the court, the university “ignored or denied.” The court stated: “The university put plaintiffs to the choice: Get vaccinated, or stop fully participating in intercollegiate sports. By conditioning the privilege...

A federal judge has denied that natural immunity from prior Covid-19 infection is a legally justifiable reason to be exempted from vaccine mandates. The judge’s ruling on a plaintiff’s case against Michigan State University comes as even mainstream media outlets admit that natural immunity is not only at least equivalent, but is actually superior to vaccinated immunity.The court’s ruling was reported by the Epoch Times on Sunday:An employee at the school, Jeanna Norris, filed a lawsuit against the mandate and asked a judge to intervene on the basis that she had already contracted COVID-19 and recovered. She presented two antibody...

A federal judge on Oct. 8 denied a request to block Michigan State University’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate on the basis of natural immunity. An employee at the school, Jeanna Norris, filed a lawsuit against the mandate and asked a judge to intervene on the basis that she had already contracted COVID-19 and recovered. She presented two antibody tests showing her previous infection, and her doctors told her that she didn’t need to get the vaccine at this time. Despite her natural immunity, Norris faces termination from the university for not complying with the school’s mandate that all students and staff...

A federal judge on Tuesday issued a temporary injunction stopping Western University from mandating Covid vaccines for athletes. US District Judge Paul Maloney, a George W. Bush appointee, put a 14-day pause on the university’s vaccine mandate for athletes, but denied the request to halt the mandate from one of the school’s employees who claimed they had natural immunity. The injunction was in response to a lawsuit filed by seniors on the women’s university soccer team. The athletes argued Western Michigan University’s vaccine mandate “seeks to override” their “sincerely held religious beliefs and viewpoint and discriminates against them on the...

DETROIT (AP) — A Catholic school in Lansing has lost an appeal over a Michigan policy that required masks on young kids earlier in the pandemic. Although the statewide mandate ended, some counties are stepping in and requiring masks in schools when the 2021-22 year starts. Resurrection School and some parents sued in 2020, saying a state mask order violated the free exercise of religion, among other objections. A judge, however, refused to intervene and issue an injunction. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that decision Monday.

The owners of Country Mill Farms in Michigan, who were banned from their local farmers market in 2016 over their biblical viewpoint on marriage, are having their case heard in a federal court this week. Steve and Bridget Tennes operate their orchard in Charlotte, and they host weddings on their farm. The Christian family used to set up a booth at the East Lansing Farmer's Market to sell their produce, but officials decided to punish them because they believe marriage is between a man and a woman. Attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) say city officials in East Lansing have...