Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/21a90_6j37.pdf
Page Number: 8.0

Cite as:  595 U. S. ____ (2021) 

7 

GORSUCH, J., dissenting 

it is that civil liberties face grave risks when governments
proclaim indefinite states of emergency.

Assuming for present purposes that its interest is a com-
pelling one, Maine has not shown that its rule represents 
the  least  restrictive  means  available  to  achieve  it.  The 
State says that, to meet its four stated goals above, 90% of 
employees at covered health facilities must be vaccinated. 
Shah Decl. 43, ¶54; State Respondents’ Brief in Opposition
9.  The State doesn’t offer evidence explaining the selection
of its 90% figure.  But even taking it as given, Maine does 
not explain how denying exemptions to religious objectors 
is  essential  to  its  achieving  that  threshold  statewide,  let 
alone in the applicants’ actual workplaces.  Had the State 
consulted its own website recently, it would have discovered 
that, as of last month, hospitals were already reporting  a 
vaccination  rate  of  more  than  91%,  ambulatory  surgical
centers 92%, and all other entities roughly 85% or greater.4 
Current  numbers  may  be  even  higher.  What’s  more, 
healthcare  providers  that  employ  four  of  the  nine  appli-
cants in this case already told the media more than a week 
ago that they have reached 95% and 94% vaccination rates 
among their employees.5  Many other States have made do 
with  a  religious  exemption  in  comparable  vaccine  man-
dates.  See Brief for Becket Fund for Religious Liberty as 
Amicus Curiae 13 (observing that the overwhelming major-

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easy-to-take pill to treat covid-19 available in the nation’s medicine cab-
inet”). 

4 Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Maine Health Care 
Worker COVID–19 Vaccination Dashboard (Oct. 27, 2021), https://www.
maine.gov/dhhs/mecdc/infectious-disease/immunization/publications/health-
care-worker-covid-vaccination-rates.shtml. 

5 J.  Lawlor,  Maine  Sees  Jump  in  Vaccinations  Among  Health  Care 
Workers as Deadline Nears, Lewiston Sun J., Oct. 14, 2021, https://www. 
sunjournal.com/ 2021/10/13/maine-reports-893-cases-of-covid-19-over-a-4-
day-period  (Northern  Light  Health  reporting  95.5%  vaccination  rate, 
MaineHealth reporting a 94% rate).