America’s Futures adds to its portfolio of helping score wins for American citizens as part of its legal work, most recently in Virginia’s Sixteenth District Circuit Court in the case, McCoy v Rector & Visitors UVA Health System, Charlottesville Cir. Court Dkt. No. CL 21-44.
On Thursday, July 27, 2023, the court issued an Opinion Letter in McCoy finding that the University of Virginia Health System (UVA), the defendant in this case, violated its own vaccine policy by refusing to grant religious exemptions based on sincerely held views and therefore its disciplinary actions against its employee, Ms. Kaycee McCoy, were arbitrary and capricious and could not stand. America’s Future contributed to the plaintiff’s pursuit of this case and the overall pursuit of justice based on UVA’s constitutional violations of Ms. McCoy and many others’ First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion.
When this lawsuit was filed, Ms. McCoy had been working for UVA as a cytotechnologist for over ten years. This case arose when UVA required employees, unless exempt, be administered the COVID-19 “jab” based on its status as a recipient of Medicare and Medicaid funding, which pulled them into the scope of Biden’s federal law compelling recipients of Medicare and Medicaid funding to effectuate COVID-19 vaccinations into the bodies of their employees.
On October 14, 2021, UVA denied Ms. McCoy’s application for a religious exemption. On or about that same date, UVA informed Ms. McCoy of the following facts: (1) the UVA denial decision was final and unappealable; and (2) If she refused a forced injection of the COVID-19 vaccine, she would face disciplinary action, which eventually came in the form of a five-day suspension from work followed by termination from employment.
On November 10, 2021, Ms. McCoy, through counsel, filed her Complaint for Declaratory Judgment along with an Application for immediate injunctive relief against UVA. As this court correctly notes in its decision, Ms. McCoy “met the requirements necessary to show that she had sincerely held religious beliefs that allow her to seek an exception to the vaccine requirement. Further, her application was sufficient on its face that it should not have been denied.”
We, at America’s Future, hope courts will follow this ruling and go further, forbidding tyrannical power-hungry bullies from implementing outrageous “rules for thee, but not for me” regulations. And, we will continue to pursue the preservation of our constitutional rights.
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