Freedom Updates
Press Releases
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.
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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.
Press Release | Law Firm Joins Lawsuit Filed by Hunter Biden
ADVOCATES FOR FAITH & FREEDOM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, december 12, 2023
CONTACT: nicole velasco @
media@faith-freedom.COM
Murrieta, CA – Garrett Ziegler, the defendant in a lawsuit filed by President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, has retained Tyler Law LLP and Advocates for Faith and Freedom to represent him against the claims made by Biden.
Biden’s lawsuit claims that Ziegler, founder of the nonprofit research and investigative group Marco Polo, illegally published sensitive information obtained from Hunter Biden’s laptop. The suit alleges that the information obtained by Ziegler was unlawfully obtained despite the fact that numerous copies of the laptop have been widely distributed to the media nationwide.
“Our client is being targeted by powerful elitists for his pivotal research and reporting that has helped Congress and hundreds of honest journalists come to an understanding of the Biden relationships and foreign compromise,” said Attorney Robert Tyler of Tyler Law LLP and Advocates for Faith and Freedom.
“This is nothing more than an attempt to scare and intimidate authors,” said Mariah Gondeiro of Advocates for Faith and Freedom. “By taking on this case, we are standing up for the First Amendment rights of all Americans concerned with judicial integrity and government transparency.”
“The American people deserve to know the truth,” said Garrett Ziegler. “They’re not just coming after me—they’re coming after investigative journalists and other writers from coast to coast who are delivering truthful information to the American people. I am hopeful the courts will not succumb to the political pressures and protect our First Amendment rights.”
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