Jim Dey | Gov says one thing, but does state law undercut him? - Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette

In another sign of our COVID-19-complicated times, a Springfield high school teacher last week bid what she hopes is a temporary fond farewell to her students.

“Today will be my last day with my students for the foreseeable future. I have been placed on unpaid leave for refusing to produce a vaccination card and refusing to be tested,” wrote Southeast High School teacher Kadence Koen on her Facebook page.

Koen’s refusal is hardly an isolated incident. Large numbers of Illinoisans who object to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s vaccine mandate are resisting. But hers is not a blind refusal — Koen thinks she has state law on her side.

“I am following Illinois law 745 ILCS 70 Health Care Right of Conscience Act. ... Hopefully this gets through the court system sooner than later!! Liberty and privacy are key components to a free country,” she wrote.

What Koen hopes is what the governor fears — that he’s on shaky legal ground because he’s acting in contravention of state law.

Two weeks ago, a state legislative committee asked the Illinois State Board of Education where the governor’s proclaimed authority to cut local school funding or deny students credits for classes they have taken comes from. Those are among the penalties Pritzker has threatened if school boards decline to follow his order that teachers and students submit to vaccinations. Now, his critics are turning to state law whose language appears to support their right of noncompliance with Pritzker’s coercive efforts.

Some skeptics charge the law is being “seized upon” as an illegitimate vehicle to evade a lawful mandate.

But given the statutory language, it might be more accurate to say resisters are relying upon state law to protect them from governmental overreach.

The statute states it “shall be unlawful for any public or private employer” to “discriminate” based on an individual’s “refusal to receive, obtain, accept, perform, counsel, suggest, recommend, refer, assist or participate in any way in any forms of health care services contrary to his or her conscience.”

News accounts suggest the law was originally written to protect health-care workers from punishment for refusing to participate in medical procedures like abortion.

However, it’s the black-letter law that statutory language, not speculation about its original intent and/or limits, determines how a law is applied.

It will, of course, take judicial review to determine how or whether this law can be used as a shield against Pritzker’s mandate.

But it muddies water the governor previously suggested is clear, particularly since the law provides “civil relief” for those who contend their statutory rights were violated. That means those who are sanctioned, perhaps like the Springfield teacher, can file a lawsuit to recover damages.

That’s enough right there to curl the hair of public and private employers statewide.

The statute, of course, raises questions that are open to interpretation.

Does the statute provide grounds to “object” to the vaccines, and, if so, can those objections extend outside of an individual’s religion?

One analysis reviewed by The News-Gazette asserts “the plain language of the statute provides all individuals are free to object ... so long as that objection is based on a good-faith, religious belief.”

But the analysis said the statute and past court rulings involving disputes of conscience do not cover objections “outside the religious realm.”

“This includes moral objections,” it states.

Left unaddressed is how a reviewing body, like a school district, can judge whether an individual’s assertion of a lawful objection will be addressed.

Short of mind reading, how does one individual determine whether another’s claim is sincere or insincere?

source: https://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/columns/jim-dey-gov-says-one-thing-but-does-state-law-undercut-him/article_f7508230-176c-5711-886f-981a8ed5cb76.html

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