In Lukaszczyk v. Cook County, (7th Cir., Aug. 29, 2022), the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling on three separate district court cases, refused to order preliminary injunctions against local and state COVID vaccine mandates. The court said in part:
The plaintiffs argue the mandates violate their constitutional rights to substantive due process, procedural due process, and the free exercise of religion. They also contend the mandates violate Illinois state law. Although the plaintiffs could have presented some forceful legal arguments, they have failed to develop factual records to support their claims. Because the plaintiffs have not shown a likelihood of success on the merits, we affirm the decisions of the district judges....
Discussing plaintiffs' Free Exercise claims, the court said in part:
[I]f these assertions have merit, there is no record evidence to support them. The plaintiffs should have gathered facts and created a record detailing any wrongful denials of requests for religious exemptions. Instead, they made a facial challenge, which ignored the text of the policy’s religious exemption and the status of the plaintiffs’ exemption requests. This does not show a violation of their right to freely exercise their religions.
