Freedom Updates
Advocates in Action
2024 National Gathering for Prayer & Repentance
This year, we were privileged once more to take part in the National Day for Prayer and Repentance, standing alongside numerous persecuted pastors of America, several of whom are our clients. Together, we lifted our prayers to God for our state, our nation, and for repentance.
May our organization continually walk in the will of the Lord, and may our nation earnestly seek His presence, ushering Him back into our country and culture.
Press Release | Santa Clara County Judge Certifies COVID-19 Vaccine Lawsuit As A Class Action
Advocates for Faith & Freedom
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, January 30, 2024
CONTACT: nicole velasco @
media@faith-freedom.COM
The Class Action Allows Hundreds of Employees the Opportunity to Prove Their Damages
Murrieta, CA – Monday evening, January 29, 2024, Federal Judge Beth Labson Freeman of the Northern District of California certified a vaccine-related lawsuit as a class action for liability purposes, allowing hundreds of employees in Santa Clara County who were placed on unpaid leave for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine to prove their damages.
This case challenges the County’s discriminatory COVID-19 vaccine orders and practices, which relegated employees to unpaid leave, even if they had a religious exemption. The January 29 order allows the Plaintiffs to proceed to trial on behalf of a class of hundreds of employees in the County who declined to take the vaccine due to their religious convictions.
Specifically, the Court certified the following class:
All individuals who: 1) work or worked for the County and/or [] were subject to its vaccine policies and orders, including the Risk Tier System; 2) were forced by the County to choose between taking the vaccine to maintain their jobs and/or their employment-related benefits or being placed on unpaid leave; 3) were [] classified as working in high-risk jobs pursuant to the County’s Risk Tier System; and 4) received [] a religious exemption from the County (the “Class”) between August 5, 2021 and September 27, 2022 (the “Class Period”).
“We are confident that we will prevail because the County’s vaccine policies and practices were arbitrary and capricious and discriminated against religious employees,” says Mariah Gondeiro, an attorney for Advocates for Faith & Freedom. Advocates has been appointed as Co-Class Counsel along with Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP.
“The County owes these courageous county employees, who worked faithfully throughout the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, lost wages and benefits,” says Bethany Onishenko, also an attorney with Advocates for Faith & Freedom.
###
Press Release | Religious Freedom Advocates Claim Victory in California Fight for Access to Federal Food Programs
ADVOCATES FOR FAITH & FREEDOM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 23, 2024
CONTACT: Jake Matthews
jake@JLKPOLITICAL.COM
Attorneys with Advocates for Faith and Freedom joined forces with Alliance Defending Freedom and the National Center for Law and Policy to reach a settlement to protect the rights of low-income migrant families who seek to place their children in faith-based preschool programs. The settlement acknowledges that while the Church of Compassion and Dayspring Christian Learning Center are faith-based organizations, they are eligible to continue participating in the federal food program granting access to free and reduced meals for low-income families who attend.
