Please support the case.

     More than 1000 people came to the small town of Bath in rural western New York yesterday for the oral arguments in a lawsuit challenging the repeal of the religious exemption from vaccine mandates to attend school. The hearing began at 10:30 am in the Steuben County Supreme Court and ended less than an hour later. James Mermigis, the lead attorney in the case and several similar suits around the state, was joined by fellow counsel Kevin Barry and Elizabeth Brehm and recounted what happened. Mermigis said he was pleased with the hearing and that Judge Robert Wiggins said he would be issuing a decision very quickly. Wiggins is a Republican and he has made decisions in the past directly at odds with the preferred outcomes of Gov. Cuomo.

     Mermigis also said that the Attorney General has abandoned efforts to have Judge Denise Sher, who is also a Republican, removed from a similar case filed in Nassau County, and that the Attorney General’s office suggested that all the similar cases around the state be unified under Judge Sher once if became known to them that the issue was also going to be heard by Judge Wiggins.

     Co-counsel Kevin Barry said the case hinges on two sections of the New York State Constitution, which is older than the US Constitution, Article 1, Section 3, which says,  “The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed in this state to all humankind;”. And Article 11, Section 1.  “The legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a system of free common schools, whereinall the children of this state may be educated.”

     Many are concerned that if Judge Wiggins issues a stay on enforcing the law which allow children to return to school, the State would immediately file an appeal with the Fourth Appellate Division seeking to void the stay. Mermigis noted that seven of the eleven Judges in the Fourth Appellate Division were appointed by Republican Governor George Pataki. Party affiliation is significant because the repeal in the legislature was heavily opposed by Republicans and favored by Democrats.

    The courtroom has fewer than twenty seats for the public, so the vast majority of people were outside in the town square park across the street from the courthouse.  There was a large number of Amish and Mennonite people present. The vast majority of children from those communities are not vaccinated and the new law, which was rammed through the legislature by Governor Andrew Cuomo, has entirely shutdown the school systems of those communities.

    Law enforcement for the town of Bath and Steuben County closed the street in front of the courthouse to traffic to accommodate the crowd,  arranged for portable toilets to be stationed in the park, arranged for several food trucks to open for business,  and opened the nearby fairgrounds for fee parking. At a candlelight prayer vigil in the park on Sunday night there was exactly one law enforcement officer and he was holding a candle.

Please support the lawsuits

     Mermigis, Barry and Brehm have active lawsuits now in Nassau, Suffolk, Steuben and Seneca Counties, and they need our help to fight for us.  Kevin Barry  is the President of  First Freedoms, a 501.c.3 non-profit called First Freedoms which is raising money to cover the costs of these cases.  

     Marilyn McDermott and Melissa Chios are hosting a wine and cheese party at the McDermott's home, 338 Woodbury Road, Cold Spring Harbor on Thursday, October 3rd at 6pm to support First Freedoms and the New York lawsuits.

     Our goal is to raise upward of $100,000. Attendance will be limited to 100 people, with a minimum donation of $500 per person. All proceeds raised by tax deductible donations to First Freedoms will be forwarded to the Mermigis Law Group to fund the cases. 

     Jim, Elizabeth and Kevin have been working around the clock for more than three months to get multiple lawsuits filed and we need to support the work already put forth as well as the continuing effort that will be needed as we go forward.  Details of the Steuben County case are here: http://www.firstfreedoms.org/oral-argument-sept-30th-in-s...

     Please RSVP to Marilyn McDermott at marilyn@themcdermottfamily.org or at 917-328-6437. If you have someone you would like to attend, please contact me. 

     If you cannot attend in person, but would like to contribute to the cause, donations can be made online via PayPal (www.paypal.me/firstfreedomsinc) and Venmo (@First-Freedoms) or by check to First Freedoms, PO Box 1816, NY, NY  10113-1816

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