The judge decides in favor of the proposal to reveal the identity of the health workers who are suing the state

A federal judge who heard a lawsuit against the state mandate of the vaccine against COVID-19 for health workers ruled in favor of a proposal by two media companies to challenge the anonymity of nine prosecutors.

U.S. District Court Chief Justice Jon D. Levi issued a 13-page verdict on Tuesday requiring previously anonymous prosecutors to file an amended appeal - containing their names - by June 7th. Governor Janet Mills and the state of Maine have been named as defendants in the case.

“When I carefully weighed the relevant factors, I conclude that prosecutors have not fulfilled their heavy burden of demonstrating the need to overcome a strong assumption that favors public access to civil proceedings, such as the need to continue under a pseudonym,” Levy wrote in his decision.

The request to reveal the identity of the prosecutor was submitted by two companies that own the Portland Press Herald, the Kennebec Journal, the Morning Sentinel and the Leviston Sun Journal.

The newspaper, which is mentioned in court documents as interveners, argued that prosecutors should still not be allowed to act under a pseudonym because the prosecutor “allegedly fears injury no longer outweighs the public interest in open court proceedings.”

The prosecutors are health workers in Maine who, in August 2021, challenged a change in the state law that requires employees in certain health institutions in Maine to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The reason for the prosecutor’s refusal of the vaccine is “rooted in their religious objection to abortion and their claim that fetal stem cells were used in the development of vaccines against COVID-19,” according to court documents.

Levy explained that at the beginning of the lawsuit, he allowed the health workers to continue anonymously after they claimed that their reasonable fear of harm outweighed the public interest in an open lawsuit. Levy said he retained the authority to reconsider.

In a decision Tuesday, Levy stated that “the religious beliefs of prosecutors and their medical decisions not to vaccinate against COVID-19, whether considered separately or together, do not represent privacy interests so important as to support proceedings under a pseudonym.”

“In the final analysis, however, there is almost no evidence that their expressed fears are objectively reasonable,” Levy wrote. “In this record, it has not been shown that the interests of the prosecutor in terms of privacy prevail over the public interest related to the presumption of openness that applies to civil proceedings.

Liberty Counsel, a conservative group that represents prosecutors, argues that Maine should offer a religious exemption for vaccines because it offers a medical exemption. This rule treats people who seek exemption from the faith less favorably, claims the Liberty Counsel, and therefore violates their right to freely practice their faith.

It was unclear whether prosecutors planned to appeal Levi’s decision.

“Since your paper is a party to the dispute and is represented by a panel, the Liberty adviser can only contact a newspaper lawyer regarding this issue,” said Holly Mead, a spokeswoman for the Liberty adviser, in response to an e-mail request for an interview late Tuesday night. .

Federal judges at all levels - the U.S. District Court, the First U.S. District Court of Appeals in Boston, and then the U.S. Supreme Court - refused to block the entry into force of the mandate while courts considered the merits of the lawsuit. Liberty Counsel, a conservative group representing prosecutors, then petitioned for a certiorari order, seeking a full briefing and an oral argument before the Supreme Court. The petition was rejected in February.

The mandate came into force in October, and the main health care providers then reported that most workers had decided to get the vaccine and keep their jobs. The case is different from the legal battle over the federal vaccine mandate for employees in private companies.

Maine did not allow workers in hospitals and nursing homes to give up vaccinations for religious reasons, and the nine prosecutors that Levy now says they have to identify demanded that option.

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