#religious-exemptions

#religious-exemptions

Late last December, Waco, Texas, Justice of the Peace Dianne Hensley filed a federal lawsuit, claiming she had the right to refuse to marry same-sex couples because of her religious beliefs. As part of the lawsuit, she also argued that the U.S. Supreme Court's 2015 Obergefell decision establishing nationwide marriage equality should be overruled. The filing garnered some headlines, reporting a new threat to Obergefell.

During a recent press conference at the White House, First Lady Melania Trump announced a new initiative of her "Be Best" campaign, which she launched in 2018, during her husband's first Administration. The original " Be Best," which aimed to raise awareness about cyberbullying and other issues facing American children, was pilloried as a hypocritical project for the spouse of the country's most powerful cyberbully.

The Supreme Court legalized gay marriage in 2015, and Davis has spent the 10 years since trying to get it overturned. As a Kentucky county clerk, she repeatedly marriage licenses to gay couples, asserting she had a First Amendment right to discriminate on behalf of her religious views. Despite being told -multiple times-that illegal, she eventually spent five nights in jail in 2015.

"I'm looking at this report from your department from April showing that more people in Florida are seeking religious exemptions for vaccines and at the same time Florida is seeing rising cases of hepatitis A, and whooping cough, and chicken pox, Tapper told Dr. Ladapo. This is in your own report, your own department's report. Before you made this decision to try to lift vaccine mandates for Florida which include obviously public schools did your department do any data analysis?"