ACLL SECURES VICTORY FOR UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA STUDENT WHO WAS BEING FORCED TO GET A COVID VACCINE AGAINST HER RELIGIOUS BELIEFS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 23, 2023

BIRMINGHAM, AL – On Wednesday, February 15th, the Alabama Center for Law and Liberty (“ACLL”) secured a victory for a University of Alabama nursing student who was being forced to get a COVID vaccine against her religious beliefs. 

Like many nursing schools, the University of Alabama has a program that sends students to a third-party medical site to do their clinicals. Those third-party medical sites require their people to be vaccinated against COVID-19. ACLL’s client was a nursing student who sincerely held a religious objection to the COVID vaccine because of its connection with aborted fetal cells. When she asked the University for a religious accommodation, the University replied that no religious accommodation would be granted. 

After the student was declined a religious accommodation, she reached out to ACLL. ACLL followed up with a demand letter to the University arguing that the law requires religious exemptions to be granted. ACLL’s President, Matt Clark, said, “The vaccine mandate from Health & Human Services for medical providers explicitly acknowledges that religious exemptions can be granted. In addition to that, the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,  the Alabama Constitution, and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act all require religious exemptions to be granted.” 

Fortunately, the University of Alabama listened and granted the student the religious exemption request. Clark said, “We are grateful that the University of Alabama listened and decided to respect our client’s religious rights the easy way. My hope is that if the University of Alabama, or any other colleges in the state run into similar issues they will do what the University of Alabama did and respect religious rights without the need for litigation.” 

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall issued guidance in 2021 arguing that colleges should help students with religious objections to the vaccine secure religious accommodations if they are working at a third-party site. 

Clark added, “My encouragement to colleges would be to look to Attorney General Steve Marshall’s guidance and to assist their students in exercising their First Amendment rights.”

ACLL is a conservative nonprofit legal organization based in Birmingham, Alabama, and it is the litigation arm of the Alabama Policy Institute. For more information, visit ACLL’s website at www.alabamalawandliberty.org.