Good news. New York Congressman Nick LaLota became the first member of the House from a state that does not have a religious exemption from school vaccine mandates to co-sponsor the GRACE Act, H.R.  57075. 

The GRACE Act is Rep. Greg Steube’s bill that would make states that do not have religious exemptions choose between continuing to deny our rights, or receiving federal education funds. They can have one or the other, not both. 

LaLota stepping up is important because if the Representatives from the affected states will not stand up for the rights of their own constituents, why should other members of Congress? 

Please contact your representative now and tell them to become a co-sponsor of the GRACE Act, and support the free exercise of religion in all 50 states.

Your action is especially important if you are a resident of California, New York, Connecticut, Maine or West Virginia, the states that do not have exemptions, and Massachusetts, Vermont, Hawaii, New Jersey, and Minnesota, states that have active efforts to eliminate or limit religious exemptions. 

TAKE ACTION

Please use the panel to the right to send a message to your member of the House of Representatives urging him or her to co-sponsor and support the GRACE Act.

Please call your representative's office and urge him or her to co-sponsor and support the GRACE Act.

You can look up your representative here:

https://www.house.gov/

ISSUES

The GRACE Act (Guaranteeing Religious Accommodation in Childhood Education Act), would restore the alignment between the First Amendment and state public health law. It would ensure that states planning to deny religious exemptions in the future will think twice before doing so. While public health policy is constitutionally given to the states, any state public health law must be in line with the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, which provide the right to free exercise of religion.

While there are currently only four states that completely forbid religious exemptions (and one state, West Virginia with partial prohibition), 20% of all American children, 14 million children and their families, live in these states.  Four of these states had religious exemptions prior to 2015.

This is not only an issue of religious freedom, but also of parental rights and the right to an education. Parents have the right to decide how to raise their children, which was emphasized in the recent Supreme Court decision, Mahmoud v. Taylor. Children shouldn’t be denied access to an education over their parents’ sincerely held religious beliefs.

This discrimination is occurring in public, private and faith-based schools. It is also denying children the right to access extracurricular activities, special education services and summer camps. Religious freedom is not just for adults; it must also protect the most sacred and cherished members of our families – our children.

The GRACE Act will not require any state to have a religious exemption, but it will cut federal education funding to any state that denies its citizens the right to a religious exemption to vaccination.

Why is the GRACE Act Needed?

• The COVID fiasco has shown that public health authorities cannot be trusted to make rational, science-based policies that respect individual rights and are free from political agendas or corruption.
• No state requires school faculty or employees to get any injections in order to work at a school, why just students?
• States do not have the right to trample on religious liberty which is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.
• Until 2015, 48 states allowed religious exemptions.
• Since 2015 4 states have repealed their religious exemptions.
• The argument that religious exemptions threaten public health is preposterous. Where are the plagues that should be afflicting the 46 states that have religious exemptions?
• Opponents of religious exemptions use public health as a cover for intense and obvious hatred of faith and people of faith who refuse to put obeying government first.
• The GRACE Act is completely in line with federal law and the Constitution.
• If the GRACE Act is passed into law, it would be unthinkable for the Supreme Court to overturn a law codifying the free exercise of religion.
• The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) of 1993 requires the federal government to deny funds to states or institutions that discriminate based on religion.
• Religious liberty is guaranteed at the federal level, setting a legal floor that all states must recognize.
• Religious protection supersedes state health policy as a matter of law at the federal level and in all states.
• States have the right to pass health laws as they see fit, but not in violation of religious or other constitutionally protected rights.
• There must be a balance between religious liberty and public health law, not a dominance of health law stomping out religious liberty.