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-19vaccination 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 of playing sports on plaintiffs’ willingness to abandon their sincere religious beliefs, the university burdened their free exercise rights.”
The three-judge panel denied a request by the university to stay a lower court’s preliminary injunction that stopped it from enforcing the vaccination mandate.
The mandate would have barred the athletes from playing in games, or even practicing with their teams, unless they were immunized against the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes the disease COVID-19.
Attorney David Kallman, senior counsel with the Great Lakes Justice Center, who represents the athletes, told the Epoch Times: “It’s a great win for our clients and for religious liberty.”
According to Kallman the court’s decision is now a “binding precedent” in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
In a press release, Kallman wrote: “The Sixth Circuit Court vindicated their (his clients) religious convictions and that they can continue to be part of their teams.
“We trust all parties can move forward in a spirit of cooperation to uphold the important constitutional issues at stake, as well as taking appropriate measures to ensure the safety of everyone at WMU.”
The order affirms: “The First Amendment, as incorporated through the 14th Amendment, prevents a state from ‘prohibiting the free exercise’ of religion.”
The 14th Amendment also guarantees equal protection under the law.
Western Michigan University has no vaccination mandate for the student body as a whole.
However, its athletes are still required to wear masks at practice and be regularly tested for the virus. Those policies were not addressed in the athletes’ complaint.
University officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said that his own daughter, who recently turned 12-years-old, has not received her COVID-19 vaccination despite the state’s mandate for students.
The governor said, according to the Los Angeles Times, that his daughter has not been vaccinated because she has “a series of other shots to get first.”
“Our schools already require vaccines for measles, mumps, and more,” Newsom said of the statewide mandate for students. “Why? Because vaccines work.”
This is not the first time that Newsom has been accused of hypocrisy for exempting himself and his family from coronavirus restrictions he urges others to follow.
He pulled his son from a camp over the summer after photos surfaced of the children playing basketball indoors without masks.
Last year, Newsom was photographed dining indoors with 11 others at a lavish restaurant without masks despite telling state residents to avoid large gatherings.
“The spirit of what I’m preaching all the time was contradictory, and I’ve got to own that. So I’m going to apologize to you,” he said during a briefing following the outing.
According to California’s COVID-19 website, only 56 percent of children ages 12 to 17 are fully vaccinated while just over 8 percent are partially vaccinated.
A U.S. delegation will meet with Taliban officials in Doha, Qatar Saturday and Sunday in the first in-person meeting between the U.S. and Taliban since the late August withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.
The meeting, first reported by Reuters, will include the State Department’s deputy special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation Tom West and USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance assistant to the administrator Sarah Charles.
While it is not clear who will be attending as part of the Taliban’s delegation, senior administration officials told Reuters that cabinet-level members of the Taliban would be in attendance.
A State Department spokesperson confirmed the meeting to The Washington Times Saturday.
“Our key priorities are the continued safe passage out of Afghanistan of U.S. and other foreign nationals and Afghans to whom we have a special commitment who seek to leave the country and holding the Taliban to its commitment not to allow terrorists to use Afghan soil to threaten the security of the United States or its allies. We will reaffirm that we continue to hold the Taliban to their commitments,” the spokesperson said.
The State Department made clear that the two-day meeting “is not about granting recognition or conferring legitimacy” and said that “any legitimacy must be earned through the Taliban’s own actions.”
The meeting comes as Afghanistan confronts an urgent financial and humanitarian crisis.
“We are in a very poor spot to try to help the women, the girls, and the average Afghans right now,” the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, John F. Sopko, said Wednesday before a House panel.
He said the U.S. and international community face a difficult path ahead in providing aid to the Afghan people on the precipice of a humanitarian and economic disaster.
“We’ve lost all ability, first of all, to know how bad the situation is for women and girls, as well as a lot of other Afghans,” he testified. “But we also don’t have much leverage.”
Mr. Sopko said it is important to ensure the Taliban is held accountable for any assurances they offer in exchange for international aid.
“If we do any funding, and I’m not advocating that we give a dime to the Taliban government… remember what do they want,” Mr. Sopko said. “And how do we ensure that if we give them anything they want, we get something in return.”
The State Department spokesperson said that the U.S. would “press the Taliban to allow humanitarian agencies free access to areas of need,” while also maintaining pressure on the Taliban to “respect the rights of all Afghans.”
The talks also come amid a deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan with ISIS claiming responsibility for several recent attacks including a suicide bombing on a Mosque in Kunduz Friday that killed 46.
On Saturday, the Taliban’s spokesman Suhail Shaheen told The Associated Press that the Taliban would not coordinate with the U.S. in their fight against ISIS, saying the Taliban can “tackle” the terrorist group “independently.”
It’s been nearly a month since Joe Biden announced a vaccine mandate that covers private companies of 100 or more people.
Many cheered, and many were outraged. Since then, experts have weighed in on the legality of such a mandate. Republican leaders nationwide have vowed to challenge it, but so far nothing has happened. And the reason why is very simple: The mandate doesn’t exist.
Not yet, anyway.
Joy Pullmann at The Federalist notes that when it comes to Biden’s vaccine mandate, “all we have is his press conference and other such made-for-media huff-puffing. No such rule even claiming to be legally binding has been issued yet.”
“That’s why nearly two dozen Republican attorneys general who have publicly voiced their opposition to the clearly unconstitutional and illegal mandate haven’t yet filed suit against it,” she explains. “There is no mandate to haul into court. And that may be part of the plan.”
Sources told Pullmann that Biden’s announced vaccine mandate hasn’t even been sent to the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for approval. The White House, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and the Department of Labor haven’t released any guidance for the mandate Biden claimed was coming. No executive order was issued. All we have so far is a press release, which, of course, has no legal authority.
“There is nothing there yet that gives employers any mandate,” Stephanie McFarland, spokeswoman for the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration, told Pullmann earlier this week. “The president made an announcement on this asking OSHA to do it, but we’ve not yet seen anything come from it yet.”
Pullmann explains that in order to “impose the public perception of a mandate,” the Biden administration is using a “unusual rule-making process” called an emergency temporary standard (ETS), which they did once before earlier this year. “The spring ETS rule took nearly six months to issue. Meanwhile, companies are telling reporters their vaccine mandates will have at the latest December deadlines.” That’s four months after Biden announced the mandate that doesn’t even exist. “According to OSHA, an ETS takes up to six months to go into effect after the initial mandate is issued in the Federal Register,” which hasn’t even happened yet.
Using the ETS procedure instead of normal federal rule-making processes both allows the Biden administration to push its demands faster and without any public input or requirement of responding to public input, which is normally required of even legally laughable federal rule-making like this one would be. That is part of why ETS rules have been overwhelmingly overturned in courts.
It’s been widely speculated that Biden’s vaccine mandate is unconstitutional, but without any executive order or regulation, all we have is a mirage. This protects the Biden administration from legal challenges, yet private companies are still rushing to comply with it out of fear.
During a recent Clark County School District board meeting, one disgruntled father testified on behalf of a group of fourteen parents who are now filing a $200 million lawsuit against the district over mask requirements.
This group of parents filed a federal lawsuit against the Clark County School District, claiming that the district’s coronavirus pandemic mask requirement is unconstitutional. They are seeking $200 million in damages as well as criminal prosecution against senior district administrators.
The lawsuit, filed in September in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, claims that the school board and CCSD Superintendent Jesus Jara “blatantly and maliciously” violated the Constitution by imposing the requirement. The plaintiffs, who collectively have 18 children, claim that the requirement is unconstitutional.”
Plaintiffs’ children have constitutionally protected interests in the benefits” that result from their parents’ refusal to submit to the Board’s mask mandate, according to the complaint. The complaint goes on to state that “the ability to pursue an education without being subjected to health risks that are not offset by any scientifically provable benefits.” Plaintiffs’ children have constitutionally protected interests in the benefits” that result from their parents’ refusal to submit to the Board’s mask mandate, according to the complaint. The complaint goes on to state that “the ability to pursue an education without being subjected to health risks that are not offset by any scientifically provable benefits.”
According to the parents, who are representing themselves, there has been a breach of their right to due process, and Jara and the school board have made criminal threats “to injure a person,” claiming that masks have been “scientifically proven” to cause both bodily and psychological injury.
For evidence that masks are harmful to children, the parents point to the findings of a German survey published in a pediatrics journal.
The parents also claim that the district neglected to react to a “affidavit of maladministration” presented to the school board on August 12 by one of the plaintiffs, Bonnie Taylor, as a cease and desist demand.
The parents not only seek that the mask requirement be repealed, but that they also be awarded $200 million in damages and that “each defendant be held responsible for breaching the public’s trust to the maximum extent of the law, which is no less than a category “C felony” be imposed on them.
The lawsuit was brought in a civil court of jurisdiction.
This action is distinct from a federal complaint filed last month by two parents in which they challenged Nevada’s mask requirement. The lawsuit, which is directed at the Clark County School District, Gov. Steve Sisolak, and state Attorney General Aaron Ford, seeks to have the mask order issued by Sisolak for all children and school staff, regardless of immunization status, declared unconstitutional. Moreover, it asserts that mask demands cause psychological anguish to children as well as a violation of parental rights and due process obligations.
The 18-year-old student who was arrested earlier this week for shooting three people at a high school near Dallas has stirred online outrage by enjoying a welcome-home party after posting bail following less than one day in jail.
Timothy George Simpkins was restricted to home confinement and drug and alcohol testing under terms of his $75,000 bail, but that didn’t stop him from partying with family members after getting home from Tarrant County Jail on Thursday. Photos and a video clip from the party were even posted on social media.
“He’s home that quick.” Where’s the remorse? Teenage Arlington Texas school shooter Timothy Simpkins parties at home with his family, while his victims remain in the hospital. He walked free in one day after being released on $75K bond. Oh, and let’s put it on Instagram with 🥰. pic.twitter.com/IlpS0c1fWQ
“Where’s the remorse?” former NBCUniversal executive Mike Sington asked on Friday in a Twitter post. “Teenage Arlington, Texas, school shooter Timothy Simpkins parties at home with his family while his victims remain in the hospital.” And as Sington noted, the video was posted with smiling heart emojis and a mood caption saying, “He’s home that quick.”
Simpkins faces three charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
During a fight with a 15-year-old student at Arlington’s Timberview High School on Thursday morning, he allegedly retrieved a gun from his backpack and shot the boy four times.
A female student was grazed by a bullet, and 25-year-old teacher Calvin Pettit was shot in the back, narrowly missing his aorta. A pregnant teacher was injured in a fall during the chaotic scenes that resulted from the shooting. The 15-year-old is reportedly in critical condition at a hospital and is in a medically induced coma.
Family members said Simpkins was a bullying victim and was repeatedly beaten, threatened and robbed at Timberview. Kim T. Cole, a lawyer representing the family, urged media outlets to “correct their narrative” because the incident wasn’t a “standard-issue” school shooting. “This was not someone who was just out to go and shoot a school and had made up their mind, ‘You know, hey, I’m upset, and I’m just going to shoot anyone I see.’”
But posting party footage a day after three people were shot is unlikely to help Simpkins win sympathy in the court of public opinion. “This man’s throwing a party?” one Twitter user asked. “How did Timothy George Simpkins get bail?”
This mans throwing a party?
How Did Timothy George Simpkins get bail?
This nihilistic animal, culture of violence must be repressed
Another observer tweeted that the party footage “made my blood boil,” adding, “I’m a retired educator who is friends with a Parkland victim’s parent. This makes me angrier than I can put into words.”
Not much on Twitter makes my blood boil anymore after living through Trump hell! But I may need a drink! I am a retired educator who is friends with a Parkland victim’s parent. This makes me angrier than I can put into words!
But some observers saw the welcome-home party differently, suggesting that Simpkins’ family was rallying around him after he acted in self-defense. “I didn’t see the party you mention,” one commenter tweeted. “That’s a family surrounding a loved one in a difficult situation.”
I didn't see the party you mention, that's a family surrounding a loved one in a difficult situation, he was assaulted as well, and maybe a younger family member posted this, simmer down.
Family members of the critically injured 15-year-old, Zacchaeus Selby, set up a GoFundMe page to help raise money for his medical expenses. His grandmother, Kathy Selby, bristled at Simpkins being portrayed as a victim, telling local NBC News affiliate KXAS-TV that “my grandson is the victim.”
A senior police officer in Australia is being investigated after she sensationally resigned from the Victoria Police force during a live interview. The cop, who said her law enforcement employment was “the best job” she ever had, revealed that a “vast majority” of her former officers don’t believe in and don’t want to enforce the strict COVID-19 orders enacted in Australia.
Former Acting Senior Sergeant Krystle Mitchell made a splash by publicly resigning during a revealing interview on Friday. On her way out, Mitchell said government orders to enforce COVID-19 orders troubled her “greatly” after seeing “the damage it is causing the community.”
Sergeant Mitchell was working in the Gender Equality and Inclusion Command, which she described as “the best job I’ve ever had.”
“I couldn’t be happier in terms of the work that I do on a daily basis,” she said in the interview with Australian media studio Discernable.
“There was a big thought process and battle of morals and integrity within me about what I wanted to do and how I see my organization being used during this pandemic and it troubled me greatly,” Mitchell told Discernable host and founder Matthew Wong.
“The consequences of me being here today is that I will be resigning from Victoria Police, effective at the end of this interview, because the consequences of me coming out publicly would be dismissal,” she said. “So I’m choosing to quit, and I’m quitting because I can’t remedy in my soul anymore the way in which my organization that I love to work for is being used and the damage it’s causing in the reputation of Victoria Police and the damage it’s causing to the community.”
“My partner and I were out walking during our two hours of exercise on the weekend and there were police everywhere,” Mitchell explained. “There was just police everywhere doing their ‘reassurance patrols.’ They’re not ‘reassurance patrols.’ You’re not reassuring anybody in the community. You’re scaring people in the community that there’s that many police out in the city trying to stop mass gatherings or what have you.”
“The police don’t want to look you in the eye; you don’t want to look the police in the eye,” she added. “There’s this air of comfortability about it all.”
“But behind that is all of my friends that are police officers, that are working the front line and are suffering every day enforcing [the Victorian chief health officer’s] directions that a vast majority, or certainly a great majority, don’t believe in and don’t want to enforce,” Mitchell continued.
Acting Senior Sergeant Krystle Mitchell quits Victoria Police.
"I can't remedy in my soul anymore how the organisation I love is being used…and damage it’s causing in the reputation of Victoria police and the damage that it's causing in the community."
Mitchell – who has worked with the Victoria Police for more than 16 years – said the disconnect between police and citizens has “been growing since March 2020.”
“The way in which we police now has completely changed,” she revealed. “And the vast majority of the police are on directions that are infringements on your everyday liberties and rights to just freely live in a democratic society.”
“In part, the reason that I wanted to do this whilst still serving and wearing the uniform today is so that the community can see that it isn’t all police that are against them and for police to see that it isn’t all protesters that are coming there to fight with you. It’s a minority,” Mitchell said. “There’s a minority on both sides and they’re the ones getting the attention in the media. The minority of the police … are using more force than is necessary to effect these arrests at protests, or to enforce [chief health officer] directions.”
Mitchell is currently on personal leave and will not return to the police force.
Mitchell will be investigated by Victoria Police’s Professional Standards Command.
The Victoria Police issued a statement on Mitchell’s bold and public resignation.
“The comments in this interview in no way reflect the views of Victoria Police,” the statement reads. “The CHO directions are based on health advice and set by the Victorian Government. Victoria Police cannot pick and choose what laws it enforces. We acknowledge this has been an extremely difficult time for all Victorians who have had to give up so much. Just like the community, Victoria Police looks forward to the easing of restrictions and the eventual return to pre-COVID life.”
Melbourne, the capital and most-populated city of Victoria, has been in lockdown for 252 days – the longest any city has been restricted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the draconian lockdowns, Victoria had 1,965 COVID-19 cases on Friday, which is the highest number during the entire pandemic.
More media lies to strip away the voice of the people.
The so-called Facebook “whistleblower” Frances Haugen this week was given a platform to testify before Congress and the same Democrat legal team that spearheaded Donald Trump’s impeachment proceedings, highlighting that Haugen is not a true whistleblower, but a Democrat shill calling for Facebook to censor more opinions she doesn’t like.
Google has announced that they will be banning ads containing “climate change denial” ahead of next month’s United Nations conference focusing on “climate action.”
Specifically, Google said that their new policy “prohibit ads for, and monetization of, content that contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change.”
Google claimed in their announcement that the changes are due to advertisers not wanting their ads promoted near “inaccurate claims about climate change.” The Associated Press said that complaints also came from YouTubers who didn’t want the content playing during their videos.
“In recent years, we’ve heard directly from a growing number of our advertising and publisher partners who have expressed concerns about ads that run alongside or promote inaccurate claims about climate change,” the Google Ads team’s statement said. “And publishers and creators don’t want ads promoting these claims to appear on their pages or videos.”
The statement continued, “this includes content referring to climate change as a hoax or a scam, claims denying that long-term trends show the global climate is warming, and claims denying that greenhouse gas emissions or human activity contribute to climate change.”
The Associated Press reports that “along with addressing publishers’ frustrations, the changes are also apparently intended to counter online influencers who monetize, or make money from, YouTube videos promoting climate change denial theories by putting ads on them.”
Google will be using both automated tools and human reviewers to enforce the policy, which will go into effect in November.
“This is welcome news — and a long overdue step in the right direction,” Democrat Rep. Kathy Castor said in a statement, according to a report from Scientific American.
“This is by no means the end of our fight,” Castor added. “Once this policy goes into effect, we will be monitoring its progress and implementation, as we continue holding Google and others accountable for the lies and climate misinformation that are too often spread on their platforms.”
Google earned $147 billion in ad revenue last year.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., delivers a compelling indictment of the mad push to total control in his appearance at the 2021 Ron Paul Institute Washington Conference.
Court Sides With Unvaccinated Michigan Athletes in Mandate Case
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 of playing sports on plaintiffs’ willingness to abandon their sincere religious beliefs, the university burdened their free exercise rights.”
The three-judge panel denied a request by the university to stay a lower court’s preliminary injunction that stopped it from enforcing the vaccination mandate.
The mandate would have barred the athletes from playing in games, or even practicing with their teams, unless they were immunized against the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes the disease COVID-19.
Attorney David Kallman, senior counsel with the Great Lakes Justice Center, who represents the athletes, told the Epoch Times: “It’s a great win for our clients and for religious liberty.”
According to Kallman the court’s decision is now a “binding precedent” in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
In a press release, Kallman wrote: “The Sixth Circuit Court vindicated their (his clients) religious convictions and that they can continue to be part of their teams.
“We trust all parties can move forward in a spirit of cooperation to uphold the important constitutional issues at stake, as well as taking appropriate measures to ensure the safety of everyone at WMU.”
The order affirms: “The First Amendment, as incorporated through the 14th Amendment, prevents a state from ‘prohibiting the free exercise’ of religion.”
The 14th Amendment also guarantees equal protection under the law.
Western Michigan University has no vaccination mandate for the student body as a whole.
However, its athletes are still required to wear masks at practice and be regularly tested for the virus. Those policies were not addressed in the athletes’ complaint.
University officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.