An administrative agency in D.C. is found to be collecting the data of those who are requesting a religious exemption to mandates for the coronavirus vaccine.
QUICK FACTS:
- A District of Columbia administrative agency is found to be collecting a list of Americans who have objected to the COVID-19 vaccination on religious grounds.
- According to a report by The Daily Signal, this agency is thought to be forming the model of what the entire federal government will use to record those who don’t comply with vaccination mandates.
- The Pretrial Services Agency for the District of Columbia is a “federal independent entity that assists officers in the District of Columbia courts in formulating release recommendations and providing supervision and services to defendants awaiting trial,” according to The Daily Signal.
- The group announced their record system is through the Federal Register and will store the names and personal religious information of the employees who ask for exemptions.
- According to the Signal, they are going to keep tabs on the “religious accommodation requests for religious exemption” of anyone who is under a “federally mandated vaccination requirement.”
MORE DETAILS:
- Legal fellows at the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation, Sarah Parshall Perry and GianCarlo Canaparo pointed to the possibility that the Biden administration is using this agency to “stealth test a policy” that it intends to use nationwide.
- The legal experts went on to say that the announcement about the agency’s work didn’t explain why the list was needed, or what would be done with the information after the request was accommodated.
BACKGROUND:
- The Biden administration has been attempting to enforce vaccine mandates at a federal level for months, with the largest being recently struck down by the United States Supreme Court, as USA Today reported.
- The administration began its effort to force vaccinations on workers in earnest in the fall of last year.
