Black Dollars

 

FILE - A community member holds a sign calling for a national boycott of Target stores during a news conference outside Target Corporation's headquarters Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt, File)

Initiatives calling on Black people to boycott Target stores began out of frustration over the cancellation of the corporation’s “diversity” commitments. Initiatives have developed into a national movement that supporters hope will galvanize unity and economic strength.

Ongoing boycotts of Target stores across the country have been called for by figures like former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner, founder of We Are Somebody, a coalition-building organization for the working class, and Reverend Jamal Bryant, senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church.

Rev. Bryant has called on 100,000 conscientious citizens to cease shopping with Target in-store and online from March 3 to April 19. His initiative is also calling on people to sell any Target stock they may own.

Black people in the Civil Rights Movement have strategized by using boycotts during their history in the U.S to call attention to ongoing systematic racism, injustice, mistreatment and violence that they have and continue to suffer.

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Rev. Jamal Bryant Photo: X.com @jamalbryantpod

The most well-known was the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which took place in a year’s time from 1955-1956 and was organized by the Montgomery Improvement Association headed by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blacks were forced to sit in the back of the bus.

Were forced to give up their seats if a White passenger wanted it and were subjected to other dehumanizing treatment. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat and before her, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin also refused to give up her seat to a White person. 

As part of the boycott, Blacks in Montgomery refused to ride the bus and worked together to organize carpools. According to several historical reports, 90 percent of Black people participated.

“Although African Americans represented at least 75 percent of Montgomery’s bus ridership, the city resisted complying with the protester’s demands.

To ensure the boycott could be sustained, Black leaders organized carpools, and the city’s African American taxi drivers charged only 10 cents—the same price as bus fare—for African American riders,” noted history.com.

“Many Black residents chose simply to walk to work or other destinations. Black leaders organized regular mass meetings to keep African American residents mobilized around the boycott,” the website stated.

Dr. Julianne Malveaux

Black folks demanded that the busses be desegregated and that Black bus drivers be hired. After a year, the U.S. Supreme Court voted that desegregation on public buses was unconstitutional. 

While the strategy of boycotts can be impactful, it is also critical that Black people work together to direct their money to Black businesses and banks to harness their collective economic power for real progress.

Minister Farrakhan, like his teacher the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, have called Black people to unify and have challenged Black America to harness their purchasing power, noted Student Minister Demetric Muhammad, a member of the Nation of Islam’s Research Group. 

An important step the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan have pointed to is to begin to spend money in support of Black-owned businesses. 

Both Divine Servants have also, over the years, asked Black people to withdraw economically from supporting White businesses and other institutions that do not serve the Black community, explained Student Min. Demetric Muhammad.

“So, with that as a context, naturally, I am happy to see the Christian community and other elements within the larger Black community begin to use this kind of wisdom (do for self) as a means to give our people a better experience in America. The hope is that this kind of thinking will grow, that it will mature and that it will spread,” said Student Min. Demetric Muhammad.

Ron Busby

“The selective non-buying campaign focused on all Target stores in America is about challenging the continued profound disrespect that Target exhibits to Black America. 

Target’s ending DEI is a racial affront to Black consumers and we should not buy anything from companies that disrespect us,” Dr. Benjamin Chavis, National Newspaper Publishers Association president and CEO, told The Final Call.

Rev. Bryant’s initiative demands that Target: 1) honors the 2 billion dollar pledge to the Black business community through products, services, and Black media buys; 2) deposit $250 million amongst any of its 23 Black banks; 3) completely restores the franchise commitment to DEI; and 4) pipeline community centers at 10 HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) to teach retail business at every level.

The initiative, which has partnered with U.S. Black Chambers Inc., is rolling out a free, digital business directory featuring 300,000 Black-owned businesses, to participants who make a pledge, according to Rev. Bryant. 

“Buycotting is more than a choice—it’s a lifestyle.  We must circulate our dollars and support our entrepreneurs,” said Rev. Bryant, who launched the “economic fast” on Feb. 2. 

Other activists are also launching similar initiatives. “We are boycotting Target first, then we will continue to organize more boycotts, strategically. 

We are doing this because our politics has become saturated with corporate money. If corporations want to shape policy that harms us, we will act accordingly,” read a Feb. 5 post by Nina Turner’s We Are Somebody organization on X.

Nina Turner

Author and economist Dr. Julianne Malveaux supports the ongoing boycott calls and emphasized the need for sustained economic action. “African American people have tremendous economic strength, and we need to flex our economic muscles.

I think that all of these calls are important if they are sustained. In other words, the Montgomery Bus Boycott was 381 days. Forty days is not enough. The boycotts need to be long enough and strong enough for Target and anybody else boycotted to be to feel them,” Dr. Malveaux told The Final Call.

“They need to see that their customer base has gone down. They need to feel that people are dissatisfied with their nonsense. They need to know that Black people are not going to just step aside and be feckless consumers and take anything they put out there,” she added.

“Let’s be clear, Target may be a bad guy, but guess what? There are others. Let’s coordinate the ways that we withdraw our dollars from the oppressor,” said Dr. Malveaux.

Where does the boycott effort go from here? “It all depends on us,” said Dr. Malveaux. “But I think that if these companies see a lowering of their support, they might think again about how they’re treating us,” she continued.

“But after the match has been lit, let’s take the flame from person to person to person. Let’s make sure that people understand that indeed we could be funding our own oppression. In other words, these companies that do not respect us, we still buy their stuff. We shouldn’t do that. Why would we do that? What is wrong with us?”

Policies that are being enacted on the federal level are encouraging and in some cases are shocking Black people to do something for themselves or suffer the consequences as the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan have warned of for decades.

Speaking about the boycott, Student Min. Demetric Muhammad said, “I think it’s a step in the right direction, and there are many more steps that need to be taken,” he said. 

He cited Bible and Holy Qu’ran scriptures, saying from the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan that the solution to Black people’s problem is a divine one.  

“When there was the plight of the enslaved, those who had suffered under cruel task masters and slave masters for 400 years, the scripture says that at the conclusion of their period of suffering, God commanded them to separate.

And so economic withdrawal is a step in the direction of a complete withdrawal from the house, from the mind, from the thinking, from the religion, from the way of life, and ultimately, from the same space as our slave masters and their children and this is an exodus of the children of Israel who had been enslaved,” said Student Min. Demetric Muhammad.

In addition to redirecting those dollars into the building of Black businesses, it is about redirecting more dollars into the building of Black institutions, he said.

“Minister Farrakhan challenged Black America to give into a national treasury 35 cents a week that we might purchase land that we would ultimately be able to feed ourselves in a time of famine but also land and territory that we could call our own, that we could begin to build a new reality for our people in this country,”

He said, referring to Muhammad’s Economic Blueprint for ending poverty and want. “So, the idea of the divine solution of separation, I’m beginning to see through this boycott is growing inside of Black America,” stated Student Min. Demetric Muhammad added.

“If we would recognize the time, get up and do something for ourselves, God will aid us. He will bless our land, our crops, and whatever we do, if we will do it for ourselves,” Minister Farrakhan said in a March 1, 1987, message titled, “Black Man: Do for Self or Suffer the Consequences.”

“The world will then take notice and marvel, and say, ‘This is a people that were dead, but they are now alive. Look at them. They are now doing something for self,” he said.

North Korea

 

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has strongly condemned the United States’ political and military provocations after a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier visited the South Korean port of Busan.

The comments were made through an official statement by Kim Yo Jong, the sister of the DPRK’s leader, Kim Jong Un. The statement was published on March 4 by the state-owned Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

“As soon as its new administration appeared this year, the U.S. has stepped up the political and military provocations against the DPRK, ‘carrying forward’ the former administration’s hostile policy,” her statement read. She accused U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration of stepping up political and military provocations against her country.

Kim added that the new U.S. administration was carrying forward its predecessor’s hostile policy against Pyongyang. She stressed that Washington has intensified its vicious confrontation with Pyongyang during the current month with a visit to Busan by the Carl Vinson aircraft carrier.

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The USS Carl Vinson, the flagship of a carrier strike group, arrived in Busan on March 2, the U.S. Navy said in a statement.

“The visit to Busan exemplifies the U.S. commitment to the region, further enhancing relationships with ROK leaders and the local population,” the U.S. Navy said, using the acronym for the South’s formal name.

Joint South Korea-U.S. “Freedom Shield” military exercises are set to begin this month.

Repeated joint military drills by South Korea and the U.S. have compelled the North to continuously develop its nuclear and missile technology. Pyongyang sees the joint South Korea-U.S. military drills as a rehearsal for an invasion.

Relations between the two Koreas are at their lowest points in years, with the North launching a flurry of ballistic missiles last year in protest as joint military maneuvers by the U.S. and South Korea.

Last week, North Korea carried out a test-launch of strategic cruise missiles in the Yellow Sea, in a drill Pyongyang said was aimed at showing off its “counterattack” capabilities.

Gender-Based Violence

 

The increasing need for gender-based violence-related services during the brutal conflict between rival militaries in Sudan has increased 100-fold since the crisis began.

This most recent violence, which began on April 15, 2023, between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) headed by General Abdul Fattah al-Burham and the paramilitary Rapid Support Force (RSF) headed by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, began in the capital city of Khartoum.

The growing conflict has destabilized regions of the nation state already recovering from war and political instability, as the deadly conflicts have engulfed much of the northeast African country.

Add to that, women have described detainment and rampant sexual abuse as militia members invade and take over the homes of families amid the widespread death and fighting. This type of violence may be the conflict in Sudan’s most egregious consequence.

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According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), almost seven million Sudanese are at risk of gender-based violence. Along with various humanitarian organizations.

UNHCR reports that Sudanese women and girls “face alarming levels of sexual violence, sexual exploitation, and human trafficking both in conflict zones, during displacement, and in hosting countries.”

Several media outlet reports, including Al Jazeera, report that sexual violence, including rape of adolescents, “is ‘being used as a tactic of war’ (in Sudan) in violation of international law and laws protecting children.”

A recent report published by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said, “at least 221 children, including boys, were raped by armed men, according to records compiled by gender-based violence service providers in the North African nation.”

The report added that of those cases, “66 percent of the survivors were girls and the rest were boys. There were 16 survivors below the age of five, including four who were as young as one.”

Near the end of 2024, The Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC), The Sudan Family Planning Association (SFPA), and The Gender in Emergencies Group (GiE) launched a new report, “In Her Own Words: Voices of Sudan.” The report showcased stories of 22 internally displaced and refugee Sudanese women from all walks of life.

One of 22 stories showcased in “Women on the Front Lines in Sudan,” which can be found on womensrefugeecommission.org, is about 27-year-old, Tasabeeh Abdullah Mahmoud Mohammed. She worked for an international organization before being displaced and lived with her family in the state capital Nyala in South Darfur. 

“Before the war, my father, mother, and I were responsible for the household income. We shared the responsibility. When the war began in April 2023, it was Ramadan, so we had plenty of food stored. We were still in South Darfur.

I was the only one receiving an income after the war. I bought extra food, and we shared it with our neighbors. In our neighborhood, we ate in groups. The men together and the women together,” she stated.

“The place we were living at was near the RSF camp. We were depending on the food we had because it was dangerous for both women and men to go out of our neighborhood. Women who attempted to go out to the market were either kidnapped or raped.

However, men were assassinated, especially men related to police or military. Young men were facing forced conscription. Hence, we were depending on each other to make and provide food for others. This is what we were doing before we got out,” said Tasabeeh Abdullah Mahmoud Mohammed.

She and her family fled to El Fasher in Northern Darfur, before eventually reaching their destination in Libya.

Later in her story she recounted how one of their neighbors helped them get out because of a relationship he had with the RSF. “In addition, RSF were knocking on doors and if they found women they raped them. One of our neighbors died after she was raped.

Some women were kidnapped, and some were raped. They raped women in front of their male family members. They even raped the girls and older women in our neighborhood.

They raped women in groups of not less than six or seven men. They came in batches with their cars to rape women. Sometimes they killed the males when they tried to defend their women,” she wrote.

In “‘Khartoum Is Not Safe For Women:’ Sexual Violence against Women and Girls in Sudan’s Capital,” a report published by Human Rights Watch, a 20-year-old woman living in an area controlled by the RSF, was interviewed in 2024.

“I have slept with a knife under my pillow for months in fear from the raids that lead to rape by RSF,” she said. “Since this war started, it is not safe anymore to be a woman living in Khartoum under RSF.”  

Albi - Perfect

Fasting is a Shield

“The month of Ramadan is that in which the Qur’an was revealed, a guidance to men and clear proofs of the guidance and the Criterion. So whoever of you is present in the month, he shall fast therein. …” ~ Holy Quran, Chapter 2, the Cow, Verse 185

Muslims around the world welcome the annual Fast as a time of heightened devotion, self-analysis and self-correction. Fasting during the Holy Month of Ramadan is an act of individual restraint and collective advancement of good will in commemoration of the Revelation of the Holy Qur’an.

Yet, we remind ourselves this Holy Month of Ramadan of the Universal Mission of Muhammad and the Universal Message of the Holy Qur’an are “a guidance to men” Revealed to humanity and that we are obliged to share the spirit of our devotion through the Fast of the Month of Ramadan with all of society to remake the world.

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The devotional force of this great Fast extends beyond the walls of our mosques, perceived borders of our communities, and nations to seek the renewal of the whole of humanity. 

Islam did not begin with the revelation of the Holy Qur’an but is rooted in the Nature of Allah (God) and the Reality of human identity in relationship to Him. Therefore, there are shared human values among the faithful through the Truth of His Revealed Word and among His Signs in creation itself throughout time (Holy Qur’an, 30:30, 59:19).

The principles that undergird fasting as a component power in spiritual and mental resurrection as a means to advance nearness to the Creator is shared among the righteous and all faith communities of the human family.

Allah (God) Reminds the Believer in the Holy Qur’an, Chapter 2 Verse 183, “O you who believe, fasting is prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for those before you.” 

Allah (God) beautifully states in the Holy Qur’an, Chapter 5 Verse 69, “Surely those who believe and those who are Jews and the Sabeans and the Christians—whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day and does good—they shall have no fear nor shall they grieve.” 

Allah (God) Teaches us in His description of these communities as, “The Family or People of the Book” (Ahl-ul-Kitab) that we share common bonds of faith and devotion.

Allah (God) gives Light to fasting as a prescription continuing in Chapter 2, the Cow, Verse 183 with clear direction to the purpose of this shared principle of fasting or restraining one’s self (sawm) among the righteous. Allah (God) Reveals this prescription is given “so that you may guard against evil.”  

“O people, surely We have created you from a male and a female, and made you tribes and families that you may know each other. Surely the noblest of you with Allah is the most dutiful of you (in guarding against evil). Surely Allah is Knowing, Aware.” (Holy Qur’an, 49:13)

“We have indeed sent down to you clothing to cover your shame, and (clothing) for beauty; and clothing that guards against evil—that is the best. This is of the messages of Allah that they may be mindful.” (Holy Qur’an, 7:26). The best garment is the garment of Truth and righteousness, which guards against evil.

In his message titled “Set Your Mind And Set Your Will For The Great Fast Of Ramadan,” the Honorable Minister Farrakhan teaches: “Fasting, one of the main pillars of Islam, is a principle that must be practiced by every believing Muslim.

In fact, fasting has been enjoined in every age, by every prophet that has come to reform the conduct of man.” Minister Farrakhan teaches, “That is a challenge.”

We drink no water during the daylight hours, we eat no food during the daylight hours, nor do we go into our wives during the daylight hours, nor do we argue, nor do we fight, nor do we do anything that will disturb our quest for closeness to Allah, and to do what this fast is designed by God to do, gives us the power to guard against evil. Now, this is a great trial, especially for the new Believers.” 

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan teaches, Taqwa or waqaya, “The root of the Arabic word ‘muttaqi,’ which is often translated as ‘God-fearing,’ signifies “the guarding of a thing from that which harms or injures it.”

The Holy Qur’an is a guide to those who guard themselves against evil” referring to the Qur’anic Arabic. Allah (God) Reveals in the following verse: “This Book, there is no doubt in it, is a guide to those who keep their duty (guard against evil) …” (Holy Qur’an, 2:2) 

The complementary concept of this teaching appears in the Bible in Ephesians 6:11-12: “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” 

Taqwa in its fullness means: to be mindful, to protect, save, preserve, ward off, guard against evil and calamity, be secure, observe duty through observation of Divine ordinances in every walk of life; to abstain; to take as a shield and be regardful of one’s duty towards humanity and God.

The companions of the Prophet (PBUH) have described Taqwa as, “when you walk on a narrow and steep path lined with thorny bushes one treads very carefully from the fear of thorns that may prick you so that your clothes do not get entangled in thorns and you do not get injured.” 

Taqwa is being as a sentinel on guard: “walking your post in a perfect manner, keeping always on the alert.” What are you on guard for?—every aspect of your garment of righteousness. The garment that Allah has created us in that is represented in our character rooted in God-consciousness. 

From its Qur’anic Arabic root meaning, ramida—to scorch or burn—the Month of Ramadan is uniquely designed to burn away the impediments of ego, excess, and evils of self-destructive hungers that hinder individual and human growth.

The practice of self-restraint or stillness through the act of fasting (sawm) is a principle action of Muslims practiced throughout the year to rid “self” of the impurities of mind, spirit and body.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad gives beautiful guidance in these words in His book “How to Eat to Live: Book 1,” page 46: “In this month of fasting we shall keep our minds and hearts clean,” and in “Message to the Blackman in America,” page 84, He advises, Islam “heals both physical and spiritual ills by teaching what to eat, when to eat, what to think, and how to act.”

Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) has instructed, “many get nothing out of the fast except hunger and thirst,” suggesting that there is no true reward or benefit in the fast for the one that is engaged in gossip, slander, idle talk, and other activities that are of sport and play.

Muhammad (PBUH) in this same spirit instructs, “Fasting is a shield. During the fast do not use obscenity, nor yell at others, nor act ignorantly towards them. However, if anyone abuses you verbally or attempts to draw you to fight with him, say ‘I am fasting.’”

Ramadan is a means for the Believer to deepen one’s discipline in restraint against evil to purify our character. The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan teaches us in these words in “Self-Improvement: The Basis for Community Development Study Guides,”

“Since fasting is given to us as a prescription—and a prescription is given to us by a doctor, telling us to take a certain medicine at and for a specified time, to effect a cure for a certain illness—in this case, Almighty God Allah is The Doctor prescribing for all of humanity.

And now we are speaking specifically to the Black people of America, that fasting is to be used as a cure for a sick spiritual, moral, social and physical condition.”

On page 57 and 58 of “How to Eat to Live: Book 2,” the Honorable Elijah Muhammad writes, if you take the prescribed fast of Ramadan, “you are doing the right thing, until this evil world has vanished.”

Depend On Allah

We cannot build a nation of righteousness depending on the governments of the world, for most of the governments of the world have turned away from Allah (God) and are now suffering great loss.

Who is better than Allah (God) to depend on for our sustenance and the granting of our innermost desires? Who knows what is best for us, other than Allah (God)?

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Oftimes we have desires which, if fulfilled, would bring us great sorrow. However, if we are strong enough to desire only that which pleases Allah (God), then we can never suffer disappointment and grief over not fulfilling some cherished desires.

Allah (God) teaches us in the Holy Qur’an that He is the Grantor of Security and that He straitens the means of subsistence for whom He pleases. It is He, then, who can cause the Earth to reveal its treasures to us and it is He who can keep us from the treasures of the Earth. So let us depend on Allah and ourselves.

Why should we depend on ourselves? There is an old saying that God helps those who help themselves; and we are taught in the Holy Qur’an, “Surely Allah changes not the condition of a people, until they change their own condition.”

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan

There is a direct relationship between our success and our relationship with Allah (God) and our failures and our relationship with Allah (God). When the Earth turns relative to the Sun, we are in the time of vernal equinox, or “spring.” When the Earth turns relative to the Sun producing what is called the winter solstice, we come into the season called “winter.” This teaches us spiritually that death (winter) and life (spring) are dependent upon our relationship with Allah (God). Thus, in the Holy Qur’an Abraham is made to say, “Surely I have turned myself, being upright, wholly to Him who originated the heavens and the earth and I am not of the polytheists.” (6:80)

The turning of Abraham to Allah (God) is not with his own power, but Abraham is in harmony with the Power that is turning him. We do not turn to Allah (God) on our own, neither does the Earth turn on its own axis in relationship to the Sun on its own. There is a force moving the Earth and the Earth is in submission to that force.

When we submit our will to do theWill of Allah (God), and it turns Him toward us, producing the springtime of our life. Faith takes root, we grow, bud, blossom and reproduce, spiritually and materially.

In the Bible, this is the work of Elijah. It is written that Elijah would “turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” (Malachi 4:6) Our obedience to Allah (God) and His Messenger is the axis on which we turn to Allah (God) and Him to us. We believe that this Elijah was among us in the person of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

The force of Satan (deceit and rebellion) is to interfere with our willing submission to Allah (God). So when we resist Him (Allah) and resist turning to Him on the axis provided by Him, Elijah Muhammad, then we are taught by the Qur’an that Allah (God) turns us to that to which we turn ourselves.

We cannot build a nation of righteousness depending on the governments of the world, for most of the governments of the world have turned away from Allah (God) and are now suffering great loss.

Every Muslim that visits the Holy City of Mecca for Hajj (Pilgrimage) or Umrah (minor pilgrimage), is made to follow the path of Hagar, running between the two hills (Safa and Marwah). What a beautiful story for us to consider, particularly those of us who have committed ourselves to rebuild the Nation of Islam by the Guidance coming to us from Allah through the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

Hagar was put out of Abraham’s house (protection and security) into the wilderness with her young child and was running between the two hills looking for help for herself and her little baby. When she was exhausted, exasperated and about to give up the struggle of life, she laid her baby down and at the foot of the baby a bubbling well sprung up. The well of Zamzam.

What lesson is in this for us?

WE MUST DEPEND ON ALLAH AND OURSELVES. Hagar got no help from the hills. The help came when she exhausted herself running to and fro between the hills. It was when she gave up on the hills that Allah (God) caused the well to spring up.

David the Psalmist wrote, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills. From whence cometh my help? My help cometh from the Lord Who made heaven and earth.” (Psalms 12:1, 2) Hills here could represent small governments of the world. We, the Nation of Islam, are, like Hagar, out of the house of our Father, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, with a little baby nation that we are attending.

We are running to and fro, trying to get help to rebuild the Work of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, which is for the salvation of our people and ultimately the entire world. Could it be that we have cried out to the hills (small governments of the world) but they have not heard our cry to rebuild this Great Work? Could it be that the well that we are looking for and need is right at our own feet?

WE MUST DEPEND ON ALLAH AND OURSELVES. Let every Muslim get up with a mind to work. Let every believer determine there is no help for us but the help of Allah (God) and ourselves. And let us show the world that Allah (God) is sufficient for the Believers. On Him let the Believers rely!

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad has warned us against sitting at home waiting on a mystery God! We have tried the mystery God and he has not come to our aid. We must get up and go to work doing something for ourselves.

WE MUST DEPEND ON ALLAH AND OURSELVES. In the Book of Proverbs 26:13, we are taught that slothful (lazy) people make excuses not to work, saying “There is a lion (beast) in the way; a lion (beast) is in the streets.” Instead of killing the lion or taming him, his presence is used as an excuse to stay indoors and thus, “as the door turneth upon its hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed.” (26:14)

Allah (God) has given, through the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the wisdom to conquer the beast and civilize the savage; so let every Believer depend on Allah (God) and ourselves and go to work today and to do something for ourselves.

Thank you for reading these words.

Vaccines and Autism

 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is planning a large study into potential connections between vaccines and autism, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, despite extensive scientific research that has disproven or failed to find evidence of such links.

It is unclear whether U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who has long promoted anti-vaccine views, is involved in the planned CDC study or how it would be carried out. The CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services were not immediately available for comment.

Many researchers attribute the rise in diagnoses to more widespread screening and the inclusion of a broader range of behaviors to describe the condition. But some public figures have popularized the idea that vaccines are to blame, an idea stemming from a since-debunked study from British researcher Andrew Wakefield in the late 1990s that connected a rise in autism diagnoses with widespread use of the MMR shot.

The causes of autism are unclear. No rigorous studies have found links between autism and vaccines or medications, or their components such as thimerosal or formaldehyde.

RFK Jr. Warns Vaccinating Poultry for Bird Flu Could Backfire

CBS News reported:

Federal health agencies oppose the use of bird flu vaccines in poultry right now, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said, weighing in publicly on it for the first time in his new role. The Trump administration has been considering poultry vaccination as it seeks to combat the outbreak that is fueling a record surge in egg prices.

U.S. Department of Agriculture officials said last month that they were ramping up planning on potentially deploying a vaccine for poultry, with the hopes of putting a draft of the plan before trading partners “as quickly as possible,” since it could affect billions of dollars in exports.

“There’s no indication that those vaccines actually provide sterilizing immunity and all three of my health agencies, NIH, CDC and FDA, the acting heads of those agencies have all recommended against the use of the bird flu vaccine,” Kennedy said in an interview on Fox News published this week.

Trump FDA Nominee Turns Vaccine Question on Dem, Recalling Controversial Biden Decision

Fox News reported:

President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) flipped a question about vaccine processes around on a top Democratic senator during his confirmation hearing on Thursday, advising them to ask former President Joe Biden why he skipped a key step when it came to the COVID-19 booster.

Dr. Marty Makary, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine professor and former Fox News medical contributor, went before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, or HELP, during which he answered questions regarding vaccines, chronic illness, food safety and abortion.

“So if you are confirmed, will you commit to immediately reschedule that FDA Vaccine Advisory Committee meeting to get the expert views?” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., asked Trump’s FDA pick.

US Government Sues Pharmacy Chains CVS and Walgreens for Their Alleged Role in the Opioid Epidemic

JAMA Network reported:

In the span of 30 days, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) sued both CVS and Walgreens, along with dozens of their state subsidiaries. The country’s largest pharmacy chains — which collectively operate more than 17 000 storefronts — aided and abetted the opioid epidemic, the federal lawsuits — filed last December and this January, respectively — allege.

The civil lawsuits by the DOJ rest on the allegation that the pharmacy chains violated both the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) and the False Claims Act (FCA).

The CSA states that narcotics can only be used for “a useful and legitimate medical purpose.” By filling prescriptions that were invalid, the pharmacies “made choices that caused these millions of violations of federal law,” the DOJ alleged in the Walgreens lawsuit.

The FCA, for its part, states that entities cannot knowingly present a “false or fraudulent claim” for government payment — either due to “deliberate ignorance” or “reckless disregard” of the claim’s falsehood. The DOJ alleged that by requesting reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid for illegitimate prescriptions, the pharmacies broke the law. They unlawfully dispensed “massive quantities of opioids and other controlled substances to fuel its own profits at the expense of public health and safety,” the lawsuit against CVS stated.

Will RFK Jr. Make America Healthy Again?

Insurance NewsNet reported:

Social determinants of health, or SDOH — nonmedical factors that influence a person’s health and risk of disease — received much attention since the COVID-19 pandemic. Could SDOH continue to draw attention as part of the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again commission? Some health care observers believe it will.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is only a few weeks into his job as secretary of Health and Human Services. A panel of health care observers discussed how Kennedy might make America healthy again during a recent webinar by the University of Southern California Center for Health Journalism.

“At its core, MAHA has a lot of overlap with SDOH — this idea that health care really is about the life that you live. I think MAHA is somewhat consistent with that,” said Dan Gorenstein, executive editor of Tradeoffs.

“Are you going to have a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that is open to thinking about ways to improve health beyond traditional health care delivery reforms and insurance reforms?  If we take Kennedy and the MAHA movement, then I would say we’ll continue to see efforts around SDOH initiatives. In the past decade and because of COVID-19, there is a lot more recognition that health care is much bigger and broader than the hospital or the doctor’s office. Under Kennedy, we are more likely to see a continuation of SDOH work than we are to see it shut down.”

Trump’s E.P.A. to Rewrite Rules Aimed at Averting Chemical Disasters

The New York Times reported:

The Trump administration has moved to rewrite rules designed to prevent disasters at thousands of chemical facilities across the country. The Environmental Protection Agency filed a motion in federal court on Thursday saying it was pulling back the safety regulations, introduced last year under former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

The rules, which took effect in May, require sites that handle hazardous chemicals to adopt new safeguards including explicit measures to prepare for storms, floods and other climate-related risks.

They also require some facilities to scrutinize their use of particularly dangerous chemicals and switch to safer alternatives as well as to share more information with neighbors and emergency responders. In addition, facilities that have suffered prior accidents also must undergo independent audits.

Americans’ Exposure

 

For decades, Republican lawmakers and industry lobbyists have tried to chip away at the small program in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that measures the threat of toxic chemicals.

Most people don’t know the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), as the program is called, but it is the scientific engine of the agency that protects human health and the environment.

Its scientists assess the toxicity of chemicals, estimating the amount of each that triggers cancer and other health effects. And these values serve as the independent, nonpartisan basis for the rules, regulations and permits that limit our exposure to toxic chemicals.

Now, IRIS faces the gravest threat to its existence since it was created under former President Ronald Reagan four decades ago.

Legislation introduced in Congress would prohibit the EPA from using any of IRIS’s hundreds of chemical assessments in environmental rules, regulations, enforcement actions and permits that limit the amount of pollution allowed into air and water.

The EPA would also be forbidden from using them to map the health risks from toxic chemicals.

The bills, filed in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives earlier this year, are championed by companies that make and use chemicals, along with industry groups that have long opposed environmental rules.

If it becomes law, the “No IRIS Act,” as it’s called, would essentially bar the agency from carrying out its mission, experts told ProPublica.

“They’re trying to undermine the foundations for doing any kind of regulation,” said William Boyd, a professor at UCLA School of Law who specializes in environmental law.

Boyd noted that IRIS reports on chemicals’ toxicity are the first step in the long process of creating legal protections from toxic pollutants in air and water.

“If you get rid of step one, you’re totally in the dark,” he said.

If the act passes, companies could even use the law to fight the enforcement of environmental rules that have long been on the books or permits that limit their toxic emissions, environmental lawyers told ProPublica.

The attack on IRIS has a good chance of succeeding at a time when Republicans are eager to support President Donald Trump’s agenda, according to environmental advocates who monitor Congress.

The bills dovetail with the anti-regulatory efforts that have marked the second Trump administration, which has begun to dismantle climate protections, nominated industry insiders to top positions in the EPA and announced plans for unprecedented cuts that could slash the agency’s budget by 65%.

Project 2025, the ultraconservative playbook that has guided much of Trump’s second presidency, calls for the elimination of IRIS on the grounds that it “often sets ‘safe levels’ based on questionable science” and that its reviews result in “billions in economic costs.”

The policy blueprint echoes industry claims that IRIS does not adequately reflect all of the research on chemicals; there are sometimes significant differences between the program’s conclusions and those of corporate-funded scientists.

IRIS has long been a target of industry and has, at times, been criticized by independent scientific bodies.

More than a decade ago, for example, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine took issue with the organization, length and clarity of IRIS reviews; a more recent report from the same group found that IRIS had made “significant progress” in addressing the problems.

IRIS’s work stands out in a world where much of the science on toxic chemicals is funded by corporations with a vested stake in them. Studies have shown that industry-funded science tends to be biased in favor of the sponsor’s products.

But IRIS’s several dozen scientists do not have a financial interest in their findings. Their work has had a tangible impact on real people.

The program’s calculations are the hard science that allow the agency to identify heightened disease risk due to chemicals in the air, water and land. And these revelations have, in some cases, led to stricter chemical regulations and grassroots efforts to curtail pollution.

‘Bitter battles’

IRIS was created in 1985. Until that point, different parts of the EPA had often assessed chemicals in isolation, and their methods and values were not always consistent.

At first, IRIS just collected assessments completed by various divisions of the EPA.

Then, in 1996, it began conducting its own, independent reviews of chemicals. Its scientists analyze studies of a chemical and use them to calculate the amount of the substance that people can be exposed to without being harmed. IRIS sends drafts of its reports to multiple reviewers, who critique its methods and findings.

As the tranche of assessments grew, so did its value to the world. States began relying on IRIS’s numbers to set limits in air and water permits. Some also use them to prioritize their environmental efforts, acting first on the chemicals that IRIS deems most harmful.

Countries that don’t have the expertise to assess chemicals themselves often adopt IRIS values to guide their own regulations.

Today, IRIS’s collection of more than 500 assessments of chemicals, groups of related chemicals and mixtures of chemicals is the largest database of authoritative toxicity values in the world, according to Vincent Cogliano, a recently retired scientist who worked on IRIS assessments for more than 25 years.

From the beginning, industry scientists challenged IRIS with calculations that showed their chemicals to be less dangerous.

“There were a lot of pretty bitter battles,” said Cogliano, who remembers particularly intense opposition to the assessments of diesel engine exhaust and formaldehyde during the 1990s.

Critiques of IRIS assessments intensified over the years and began to slow the program’s work.

“It took so long to get through that there were fewer and fewer assessments,” said Cogliano.

In 2017, opposition to IRIS escalated further. Trump’s budget proposal would have slashed funding for the program. Although Congress funded IRIS and the program survived, some of its work was halted during his first presidency.

Trump appointed a chemical engineer named David Dunlap to head the division of the EPA that includes IRIS. Dunlap had challenged the EPA’s science on formaldehyde when he was working as the director of environmental regulatory affairs for Koch Industries.

Koch’s subsidiary, Georgia-Pacific, made formaldehyde and many products that emit it. (Georgia-Pacific has since sold its chemicals business to Bakelite Synthetics.) While Dunlap was at the EPA, work on several IRIS assessments was suspended, including the report on formaldehyde. IRIS completed that report last year.

That assessment proved controversial, as ProPublica documented in its investigation of the chemical late last year. In calculating the risks that formaldehyde can cause cancer, IRIS decided not to include the chance that the chemical can cause myeloid leukemia, a potentially fatal blood cancer.

The EPA said IRIS made this decision because it lacked confidence in its calculation; the agency admitted that the omission drastically underestimated formaldehyde’s cancer risk.

‘The depth of the poisoning’

Still, some of IRIS’s assessments have made a huge difference in parts of the country.

In 2016, IRIS updated its assessment of a colorless gas called ethylene oxide.

The evaluation changed the chemical’s status from a probable human carcinogen to plainly “carcinogenic to humans.” And IRIS calculated the uppermost amount of the chemical before it starts to cause cancer, finding that it was 30 times lower than previously believed.

The EPA used that information to create a map, which showed that people living near a sterilizing plant in Willowbrook, Illinois, had an elevated cancer risk because the facility was releasing ethylene oxide into the air. Once locals learned of their risk, they kicked into action.

“That knowledge led us to be able to really activate the groundswell of community members,” said Lauren Kaeseberg, who was part of a group that held protests outside the plant, met with state and local officials and testified at hearings.

Not long after the protests, Illinois passed legislation limiting the release of the pollutant, the local plant shut down and the cancer-causing pollution was gone from the air.

Around the country, the pattern has been repeated. After IRIS issues its estimate of the amount of a chemical that people can safely be exposed to without developing cancer and other diseases, the EPA uses that information to map the threats from chemicals in the air.

IRIS’s evidence showing that people have an elevated risk of cancer has sparked some hard-hit communities to fight back, suing polluters, shuttering plants and demanding the offending chemical be removed from their environment.

In St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana, residents had long felt as if they had more than their share of sickness. The small rectangle of land near the Mississippi River abuts a chemical plant that emits foul-smelling gases.

For decades, as they breathed in the fumes, residents suffered from respiratory problems, autoimmune diseases, cancers and other ailments. In 2016, after IRIS assessed the toxicity of chloroprene, one of the chemicals coming out of the plant’s smokestacks, the people of St. John discovered the main source of their problems.

The IRIS assessment showed that chloroprene was a likely carcinogen and caused damage to the immune system. With this information, the EPA concluded that St. John had the highest cancer risk from air pollution in the country.

“I didn’t realize the depth of the poisoning that was taking place until EPA came to our community in 2016 and brought us that IRIS report,” said Robert Taylor, who has lived his entire life in St. John.

When the agency representatives arrived, Taylor’s wife had cancer and his daughter was bedridden with a rare autoimmune condition. A lifelong musician who was then 75, Taylor began organizing his neighbors to demand a stop to the deadly pollution. (His wife died in December 2024.)

The assessments of chloroprene and ethylene oxide — and the activism they sparked around the country — eventually led the EPA to crack down.

Last year, the agency announced several rules that aimed to reduce toxic emissions. The rules call for changes in how companies produce and release chemicals — the type of reforms that can be expensive to undertake.

The Joe Biden administration sued Denka, the company that owns the chloroprene-releasing plant in St. John, in an effort to force it to curb the amount of the chemical it released. But the Trump administration intends to drop that suit, according to The New York Times.

For its part, Denka sued the EPA over one of the rules in July 2024, asking the court for more time to implement the changes. The company argued that the agency was on a “politically motivated, unscientific crusade” to shut down the plant.

Critics of IRIS have used similarly barbed language in their recent attacks. In his press release introducing what he calls the “No Industrial Restrictions in Secret Act” in the House, Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.), wrote that:

“Unelected bureaucrats in the Biden Administration have disrupted the work of Wisconsin’s chemical manufacturers and inhibited upon the success of the industry through the abuse of the EPA’s IRIS program.”

The press release said the bill is supported by Hexion, which has a plant in his district. Hexion makes formaldehyde, a chemical that increases the cancer risk nationwide.

Neither Grothman nor Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), who introduced the Senate version of the bill, responded to questions from ProPublica, including how they think the EPA could regulate chemicals if the bill passes. The EPA did not answer questions for this story.

The American Chemistry Council, which represents more than 190 companies, sent a letter to Lee Zeldin in late January calling on the EPA administrator to disband IRIS and prohibit the use of its assessments in rules and regulations.

IRIS “has been increasingly used to develop overly burdensome regulations on critical chemistries,” the letter states, going on to argue that the program lacks transparency and “has often fallen short of scientific standards.” (The letter was first reported by Inside EPA.)

The American Petroleum Institute, the Extruded Polystyrene Foam Association, the Independent Lubricant Manufacturers Association, the Fertilizer Institute and the Plastics Industry Association were among the dozens of organizations representing industries financially impacted by IRIS’s chemical assessments that signed the letter.

‘Off the deep end’

Industry groups have also criticized IRIS for being slow and overstepping its authority. And they have noted that outside organizations have found fault with it.

In addition to the National Academies criticism in 2011 about the clarity and transparency of its reports, IRIS has responded to recommendations from the Government Accounting Office (GAO), according to a report the congressional watchdog issued last week.

The GAO, which monitors how taxpayer dollars are spent, placed IRIS on its “high risk list” in 2009. But the GAO did so not because it was vulnerable to waste, fraud and abuse — the reasons some programs land on the list — but because the watchdog decided IRIS wasn’t doing enough assessments of dangerous chemicals.

Since 2009, the GAO has made 22 recommendations to IRIS, all of which have been implemented, according to the agency’s website.

The new report acknowledged improvements but noted that the program’s current pace of finalizing assessments “likely cannot increase without more resources.”

According to the GAO report, in 2023 and 2024, IRIS had reported needing 26 additional staff members to meet the demand for chemical assessments.

Defenders of the program say the criticisms mask a simple motive: protecting industry profits rather than public health.

“It’s blatant self-interest,” said Robert Sussman, a veteran attorney who worked at the EPA as well as for environmental groups and chemical companies.

“What they’re really trying to do here is prevent the EPA from doing assessments of their chemicals.”

While he has witnessed many attempts to scale back the EPA’s power in his 40-year career, Sussman described the current effort to eliminate its use of IRIS’ chemical assessments as “completely off the deep end.”

Weaker bills targeting IRIS were introduced into both the House and Senate in February of last year but did not have the political support to advance.

Now, after the election, the possibility of success is entirely different, according to Daniel Rosenberg, director of federal toxics policy at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental nonprofit.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt that if it does pass Congress — and it now could — the president will sign it,” said Rosenberg.

But Rosenberg added that he believes that if the public understood the consequences of doing away with the science at the core of the EPA’s work, people could potentially sway their lawmakers to stand up to the attack on IRIS.

“The current political alignment is clearly very favorable to the chemical lobby, but their actual agenda has never been popular,” said Rosenberg. “There’s never been a case where people are in favor of more carcinogens in their environment.”

Without Parents

 

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has upheld a lower court ruling that school medical staff who gave a COVID-19 vaccine to a minor without obtaining parental consent cannot be held liable.

On March 4, the court ruled that school medical staff were protected under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act).

The PREP Act provides a liability shield to “covered persons” — including those who administer COVID-19 or other countermeasures — during a public health emergency. COVID-19 vaccines are covered under the PREP Act because they were rolled out under emergency use authorization (EUA).

In November 2021, J.H., a minor, was given a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Miller School in Waldoboro, Maine.

In May 2023, J.H.’s parents Siara Harrington and Jeremiah Hogan, who said they did not consent to the vaccination, sued Lincoln Medical Partners, MaineHealth and pediatrician Dr. Andrew Russ.

The lawsuit, originally filed in Lincoln County Superior Court, challenged the PREP Act’s liability shield. The complaint alleged battery, negligence, false imprisonment, infliction of emotional distress and tortious interference with parental rights.

In April 2024, the Maine Superior Court dismissed the lawsuit, finding that the PREP Act granted immunity to the defendants.

J.H.’s parents appealed to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in August 2024, arguing that the PREP Act does not protect practitioners from liability in cases involving nonconsensual medical interventions.

The appeal also referenced the Project Bioshield Act of 2004, which states that people must have the “option to accept or refuse administration” of EUA products.

In its ruling, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court found that the staff who administered the vaccine to J.H. were immune under the PREP Act because they were “covered persons” as defined by the act and because the vaccine was classified as a “covered countermeasure” and was administered during a public health emergency.

The court also ruled that the lawsuit contained no viable claim for willful misconduct — the only exception to the PREP Act’s liability shield — and that the PREP Act supersedes state law, even for battery claims.

F.R. Jenkins, an attorney for the plaintiffs, disagreed with the decision. He said the EUA statute “clearly states that Americans have the right to ‘accept or refuse’ covered countermeasures” but that the court did not consider this in its ruling.

“There is no meaningful right to accept or refuse if one cannot bring an action for civil money damages to enforce the right.” Jenkins said the PREP Act was not meant to supersede informed consent.

He added:

“It is simply inconceivable that Congress intended to abolish the doctrine of consent to medical treatment for a whole class of claims when the doctrine is both firmly entrenched in common law precedent and tradition and the doctor-patient relationship and the consent underpinning it have always been the subject of state rather than federal regulation.”

‘Unconscionable’ ruling in Maine influenced by similar case in Vermont

Attorney Ray Flores, senior outside counsel to Children’s Health Defense (CHD) and an expert on the PREP Act, said the Maine court ruling is part of a trend in which state and federal courts have ruled in favor of the PREP Act’s immunity provisions.

“There is more than enough case precedent, going back 13 years, for the PREP’s preclusion for battery of a minor,” Flores said. “The Maine opinion cites the cases.”

The Maine ruling comes just a week after the U.S. Supreme Court refused a petition to review a lower court’s ruling in a similar lawsuit in Vermont, Politella v. Windham Southeast School District. In that case, the school gave the vaccine to a 6-year-old boy, despite his and his parents’ objections.

In July 2024, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled that the PREP Act shielded school officials from liability.

John Klar, attorney for the plaintiffs in the Vermont case, said the U.S. Supreme Court’s subsequent decision to deny the plaintiff’s petition means the Politella case remains binding, but “only in Vermont, and only for now.”

“The Supreme Court’s denial of the petition doesn’t set precedent and doesn’t render an opinion on the merits of the case,” Flores said.

However, according to Klar, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court “relied on the Vermont Supreme Court’s atrocious ruling to reach a similarly unconscionable result.”

Wayne Rohde, author of “The Vaccine Court: The Dark Truth of America’s Vaccine Injury Compensation Program” and “The Vaccine Court 2.0,” said the two rulings show that “our state and federal court system has no interest in supporting true informed consent.”

Klar said courts have misinterpreted the PREP Act, which “does not by its terms state that it extends immunity beyond vaccine injuries to violate the established constitutional rights of parents to make medical decisions for their children.”

As a result, intentional torts, such as battery, are shielded from liability, Klar said. “Even a forced vaccination would be protected by these decisions,” he said.

According to Klar, U.S. Supreme Court precedent has upheld “the fundamental rights of parents to make decisions regarding the care and management of their children.”

The rulings in Maine and Vermont have “perverted federal constitutional law” by subordinating this precedent to the federal government’s “compelling interest in legislating to address public health emergencies,” Klar said.

Another similar case is pending in North Carolina, where the state Supreme Court is considering an appeal to overturn the dismissal of a case involving a 14-year-old boy who was given the COVID-19 vaccine in 2021 without his or his parents’ consent.

The child’s parents alleged battery and violation of a state statute prohibiting the administration of EUA products without parental consent. In February 2023, the trial court dismissed the case, and in March 2024, the North Carolina Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal.

In July 2024, CHD filed an amicus brief urging the North Carolina Supreme Court to overturn the dismissal. Rohde said he is “very concerned” that the Maine and Vermont rulings may influence the North Carolina court’s decision.

Calls to ‘sundown’ PREP Act and reassert ‘right to accept or refuse’

In December 2024, the Biden administration extended the liability shield for COVID-19 countermeasures through Dec. 31, 2029 — the 12th extension since 2020.

Rohde said the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the White House should “sundown the PREP Act immediately” and “provide guidance to the courts on true informed consent and the preservation of parental rights.”

Last month, the U.S. Senate confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr., former chairman of CHD, as HHS secretary.

Jenkins called on HHS to take action. “The EUA statute states that the Secretary of HHS should take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that everyone understands that there is a right to accept or refuse.”

Jenkins said HHS should clarify that “the PREP Act does not bar actions for civil money damages based on the failure to seek and obtain basic consent” — and called for broader advocacy efforts if the U.S. government fails to act.

“It is time to take aggressive action to protect children … and the entire American public, from further PREP Act abuse,” Jenkins said.

Pay $90,000

 

A federal court on Thursday awarded $90,000 each to two former St. Louis Public Schools (SLPS) employees who sued the school district after their requests for a religious exemption to the district’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate were denied, St. Louis Today reported.

The two employees were among 43 plaintiffs who sued the district in June 2022, alleging the schools violated their First Amendment rights and the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the 14th Amendment and federal and state civil rights law.

Two other employees reached settlements with the district last month for undisclosed amounts. In July 2024, four employees received settlements of $25,000 each.

According to St. Louis Today, 35 other employees are engaged in mediation talks with SLPS. If those talks break down, a jury trial will follow.

In August 2021, St. Louis Public Schools announced the district’s vaccine mandate, which took effect on Oct. 15, 2021.

According to the policy, medical exemption requests would be considered “on a case-by-case basis” and the schools would offer “reasonable accommodations, absent undue hardship, to employees with sincerely held religious beliefs, observances, or practices that conflict with getting vaccinated.”

Fox 2 St. Louis reported in August 2021 that the school’s employees were required to get the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine as it was the only fully licensed vaccine available.

According to St. Louis Today, 96% of employees complied with the mandate. However, according to a November 2021 Fox 2 St. Louis report, 47 unvaccinated employees — including 44 teachers, two custodians and a secretary — were placed on unpaid administrative leave and one principal resigned in opposition to the policy.

Restrictions infringing constitutional rights ‘spread across the country like a virus’

In June 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri ruled in favor of the 43 employees who sued SLPS, opening the door for the employees to pursue settlements with the district.

According to Bloomberg Law, the court found that the employees had grounds to pursue most of their claims.

In its ruling, the court found the plaintiffs had demonstrated sufficient grounds to pursue their First Amendment and Equal Protection claims and their claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Missouri Human Rights Act.

“The District’s alleged Policy put Plaintiffs to a choice: compromise their convictions or lose their livelihoods,” U.S. Chief District Judge Stephen R. Clark wrote. “Restrictions impermissibly infringing on constitutional rights, like the right to freely exercise one’s religion, spread across the country like a virus.”

According to the ruling, while SLPS “granted the majority” of medical and disability exemption requests, it “categorically denied” all of the approximately 150-200 religious exemption requests it received, “apparently without the benefit of individualized review” — despite the district’s promises that all such requests would be reviewed.

“After submitting requests, Plaintiffs received substantially identical ‘Religious Vaccine Exemption Response’ letters in September of 2021,” the ruling stated. SLPS “eventually suspended without pay and/or terminated between 100 and 127 of those who applied for a religious exemption.”

However, in January 2022, the school district “changed course” according to the ruling and granted “most” of the previously submitted religious exemption requests, reinviting most of the employees who had previously been suspended or fired.

According to the ruling, SLPS argued that it could not accommodate the religious exemption requests because unvaccinated employees who came into close contact with a person infected with COVID-19 would have to quarantine for 14 days.

“But when the District suspended and/or terminated over 100 employees en masse for refusing the vaccine, the District may have imposed on itself a staff shortage of a worse nature than the one it sought to avoid in the first place,” the ruling stated.

The November 2021 Fox 2 St. Louis report quoted an unnamed school employee who said the remaining staff faced a “lot of added stress … because we are missing so many people.”

Attorneys for the plaintiffs did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

Several other lawsuits have successfully challenged denials of religious exemptions

The settlements are the latest in a string of recent successes for plaintiffs across the U.S. who sued their employers for denying their religious exemption requests.

In November 2024, a federal jury in Detroit awarded nearly $12.7 million to a Catholic woman who sued her former employer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, after she was fired in 2022 for refusing on religious grounds to get a COVID-19 shot.

In August 2024, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of a former Philadelphia assistant district attorney who said she was wrongfully denied a religious exemption for the COVID-19 vaccine and was subsequently fired when she didn’t get vaccinated.

In June 2024, a federal grand jury in Tennessee decided in favor of a former BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee scientist who refused the COVID-19 shot, citing her religious beliefs. The jury awarded her $687,240 in back pay and damages.

In at least 10 other rulings last year, federal appellate courts ruled in favor of plaintiffs who had been denied religious exemptions by their employers.

More such lawsuits are in progress, including a lawsuit in Massachusetts by a former Tufts Medical Center emergency room doctor who refused the COVID-19 vaccine on religious grounds, and a lawsuit in Oregon involving over 60 former employees of Asante who were fired after their religious exemption requests were denied.

A survey conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania in January found that public support in the U.S. for religious exemptions nearly doubled over the last six years.